At Port Carlisle, there is ice banked up on the beach. This will be from the sea freezing in the shallows at high tide in the night. It has a very funny texture and freezes in odd shapes. Some of the sections are reminiscent of the bigger, harder mini-ice-bergs that washed up in 2010. We wondered if the freezing process removed the salt. One small piece sampled had no salt taste. This article explains our observations quite well. It is probable that we had the start of pancake ice. It also explains the mushy texture. I have seen articles that say sea ice is salty but in less than 4 years it becomes pure H2O. The Met Office article would suggest that the salt gets concentrated into tiny sections. How the salt is then removed over time is not clear to me yet.
