“Foul-smelling” algae has washed up on a beach in Shoebury.

Concerned residents spotted the rare algal bloom on Tuesday on Shoebury beach and initially feared it was a sewage spill.

But Anglian Water has now confirmed it is a rare algal bloom of phaeocystis and the foam given off looks and smells like sewage.

A Shoebury dog walker who photographed the bloom said: “It was absolutely disgusting, and it stank.

“There will be kids swimming in that soon and it is just wrong and disgusting.

“I regularly walk my dog down there and I have never seen this before, it is sticking to the beach.

“I am 61, I have lived here my whole life and have never seen anything like this, the whole shoreline was brown.

“It was horrible, and people were stopping to look at it.

“I just can’t believe people will be able to swim in that come summer.”

Data from Surfers against Sewage show that the Shoebury Beach storm overflow drain did trigger alerts near Shoebury Beach on Monday and Tuesday, though the east beach drain did not report any.

Update: Anglian Water has since confirmed although alerts were triggered through the BeachAware system no sewage was discharged at Shoebury beach on Monday and Tuesday that week.

CORRECTION:

In today's print edition of the Echo and in an earlier online version of this story, we incorrectly suggested the algae found in Shoebury was toxic. 

In fact, the algae is believed to be phaeocystis algal foam, a common, non-toxic algae, form in British coastal waters when the temperatures are warmer and there’s more sunlight.

The Echo apologises for the error and any upset or inconvenience caused.