Two years ago we stayed at the Westin and were very disappointed with the beach condition. Most of the beach was covered with straw/hay. You could not lie on the sand and play in it. During the high tide the straw/hay would be picked up by the waves and taken back to the ocean making the ocean water dirty. We are planning to go there this August. Is the straw/hay still on the beach? Thanks.

Didn't want your response to go unanswered. I was just there, saw most of the beach on HHI and it was perfect.I'm stumped about the hay problem but please don't worry this year.

Straw/hay is otherwise known as "seaweed". Sometimes a big storm at sea will deposit a bunch of it on the beach.

This did not look like seaweed. The hay was put there to protect the beach from erosion and looked ugly.

Lightspeed_Chick is correct. This is seeweed from marshgrass. I called hotel and they explained it to me. Thanks

I know what you mean by the straw/hay. Yes, it was there last year on the Palmetto Dunes Plantation beaches in Hilton Head. I thought it was put there for erosion also as it did not look like your normal seaweed to me and it was just too much of it and too evenly spaced. There was a lot more of it in June than in August also.
I was just there last month though and it was all gone. Beaches were great.