I really couldn't give a fig as to what it's called , either in English or Latin. All I know is what is before my eyes. It is disgusting, smelly and an affront to the many visitors we get to Tynemouth Park. Not shown here, but a fellow club member has a pic of a dead duck trapped in the weed. The Lake (cricket ground?) is between 3 and 4' deep. The weed at the North end is actually solid from the surface to the bottom. But it isn't just us model boaters who are suffering. There are thousands of "non-paying" users of the lake (normally called "Birds") who come in for a wash and brush-up. All gone. And who can blame them. I hate swans. I know that they are beautiful and graceful, but they are anethema where model boating is concerned...they have also gone.
Surprisingly we also have many bipedal visitors to the park and the lake. These visitors are normally referred to as "people". They migrate to the coast from far away places that may even be more than 10 miles away. They come down to the coast expecting a pleasant day out. They do not come to witness an ecological disaster.
One of the problems is that the lake is a "puddled" one. That is, it although it may have stone cladding around the edges, the bottom of the lake is (or was) puddled clay. And that was done around 1890. Not all that much pollution then, I think. So over the years, instead of draining and cleaning the bottom with an industrial form of Baby Andrex (or "Wipes"), the various councils have just let the whole place go to rot. Apart from eating them I'm not a great lover of (edible) birds, but in this instance I do have a certain sympathy. A "man-made" destruction of a natural habitat is inexcusable.
As this problem is so long-running North Tyneside council really should get their rear ends into gear and sort this problem out....not just for us "boaters", but for everybody/thing.. Sorry for taking up your time. Bryan Young.