The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Freddie Blay, has debunked claims by some residents living along the Western Region coast that oil exploration in the area is the cause of large discharges of seaweed onto the beaches.

After a tour to some of the communities adversely affected by the seaweeds, the board chair who spoke to the media said the community members should disabuse their minds from blaming the oil companies for what is happening.

According to residents, since Ghana discovered oil in commercial quantities some 14 years ago, the dumping of seaweeds on their beaches has become an annual ritual they have been battling.

"When I was young, say at the age of 10 upwards, we were not seeing this at the beach, but when the oil companies started their activities somewhere around 2010 that was when we started seeing such weeds at the coast" assembly member for Princess Town, Joseph Bordoh told JoyNews.

However, Freddie Blay insists that the invasion of their beaches by the seaweeds is a result of climate change and not oil exploration.

"Some of them have speculated wrongly thought that the seaweed is coming because there is oil production in the Western Region and that is not true".

"This happens to been there since 1998 when I was a member of parliament, but there has been an increase, and it's getting worse", he emphasised.

He, however, admits the negative impact the seaweed has brought on the communities, especially fishermen.

"When you cast your eyes along the coast, you will see that the seaweed has invaded the communities, and some have dried up."

"Now it has made it impossible for the community, particularly fishermen, to go to sea and look for their livelihood, and that is causing serious problems around here", he added.

Mr Blay has called on oil companies and other stakeholders for immediate steps to alleviate the sufferings of the fishermen whose livelihoods have adversely been affected by the invasion of seaweed.

For now, the seaweed can only be swept away as we await researchers to find out what other uses these weeds can be put into like other countries are doing.