Diver Paul Parsons could scarcely believe his eyes while searching the seabed at the end of the Palace Pier in Brighton.

Instead of fish, crabs, lobsters, mussels and shoals of bass he found a carpet of fresh potatoes.

Now he fears hundreds of spuds will rot, rise to the surface and end up on the city's holiday beaches.

Paul, 37, from Sompting, near Worthing, said: "When you are swimming along, you don't expect to see hundreds of potatoes.

"There must have been ten square metres of spuds off the southern corner of the pier. They were everywhere. While we were looking at them, a couple floated to the surface.

"Soon they may all rise to the surface as they start to decompose and they could wash up on the beach."

He said he could understand them being dumped if they were rotting but they looked fresh to him and dive partner David Cropp.

Mr Parsons said the seabed was littered with rubbish, including bundles of wiring, halogen lights, a door, scaffold poles, buckets and wheels off rollercoasters.

There were also tables, chairs and pint glasses heaved over the side of the pier by drunks.

He believes the other refuse was either washed overboard during storms, accidentally dropped, or deliberately dumped.

Mr Parsons said he had complained to pier bosses, the Environment Agency and Brighton and Hove City Council about the mess.

In addition to the rubbish, there were the rusting remains of a barge which sank after ramming the pier, causing serious damage to the structure, in 1973.

Other items recovered from the seabed included sunglasses, watches, various items of jewellery and modern coins, plus a few old pennies.

Mr Parsons said: "There is a series of walkways beneath the fairground area where loads of junk gets dropped. I can imagine rough seas may knock some of the stuff down but not the amount that's down there.

"The seabed looks like a scrapyard. I have been taking photographs under the pier for the last three or four years now.

"I would like to think that we could stop this unnecessary vandalism."

Bob O'Connor, spokesman for the pier, was mystified. He said: "I am not aware of any mass loss of potatoes. I have just spoken to my restaurant manager and neither is he."

A spokeswoman for the Environment Agency said anything below the low water mark, which included debris on the seabed at the end of the pier, was not its responsibility.

But if the potatoes started washing up on the beach or floating in the shallows, then it was classified as flotsam and jetsam and was the responsibility of Brighton and Hove City Council.