A 5,000-Mile-Wide Mass of Seaweed Is Heading for Florida and Mexico (2024)
A 5,000-mile-wide blob of brown seaweed is making its way toward North America and could soon wreak havoc on beaches throughout Florida, Mexico and the Caribbean, reports NBC News’ Denise Chow.
The thick raft of seaweed—known as the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt—is not new, but scientists say it’s especially large now. What’s more, the giant sargassum blanket floating in the Atlantic Ocean appears to be making landfall several months earlier than normal this year, which “doesn’t bode well for a clean beach summer in 2023,” says Brian Lapointe, an ecologist at Florida Atlantic University, to the New York Times’ Livia Albeck-Ripka and Emily Schmall.
Sargassum typically makes landfall in May, then peaks in June and July. But already, the seaweed is starting to pile up on beaches in Florida’s Key West as well as in Mexico’s Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Tulum.
“These blooms are getting bigger and bigger, and this year looks like it’s going to be the biggest year yet on record,” Lapointe tells the Times.
Generally, the sargassum mat bobs harmlessly between West Africa and the Gulf of Mexico. Out in the middle of the Atlantic, it even provides some benefits, such as absorbing carbon dioxide and providing shelter for various marine creatures, including some fish, crustaceans and sea turtles.
But when the tangle of seaweed washes ashore, it starts to cause problems. It piles up on beaches and begins to rot, releasing toxic hydrogen sulfide into the air. Also known as “sewer gas” or “swamp gas,” the colorless hydrogen sulfide smells like rotten eggs and can cause respiratory and neurological issues in humans.
Sargassum is a big turnoff to tourists, so it can also lead to economic consequences for the hotels, restaurants and other businesses that rely on travelers for their livelihoods. This year, its early arrival adds to the problems of Florida’s Gulf Coast tourism industry, which is already grappling with the harmful effects of a toxic red tide.
“It’s unpleasant,” says Melinda Simmons, a marine scientist at Jacksonville University, to First Coast News’ Robert Speta. “Whether you are swimming or wading in it, it’s going to smell bad. And then people don’t want to come to the beach.”
Beyond that, sargassum can make it challenging for boats to navigate through coastal waters. It can block the intake valves of desalination plants and power plants, which can lead to water shortages and other issues. It can also block light from reaching the plants and animals below the water’s surface and make it difficult for sea turtles to crawl across the sand to their nesting habitats or to the ocean.
Though communities and resorts try to remove as much of the seaweed from the beach as possible, that process is expensive and labor-intensive. And once they remove the sargassum, they then must figure out what to do with it. Sargassum contains heavy metals, including arsenic, that can make it dangerous to compost or use as fertilizer. Entrepreneurs are trying to come up with novel solutions to the sargassum problem—such as sinking it to the bottom of the seafloor or using it for building materials—but have so far struggled to make them commercially viable.
Scientists have been tracking the Atlantic sargassum raft for years. But in 2011, they started to notice that it was ballooning in size annually. The brown blob is now so large that it can be seen from space, and researchers use satellite imagery to keep tabs on it.
They aren’t exactly sure what’s causing the growth, but they suspect that human activities may be at least partly to blame. They’ve noticed that the sargassum mass tends to expand seasonally, around the same time that major rivers like the Congo, the Mississippi and the Amazon are discharging into the Atlantic. From this pattern, they’ve determined that runoff from fertilizers, deforestation and biomass burning may be unintentionally feeding the seaweed. Increasing ocean temperatures, which stem from human-caused climate change, may also be contributing.
“I’ve replaced my climate change anxiety with sargassum anxiety,” says Patricia Estridge, co-founder and CEO of Seaweed Generation, a Scotland-based company that aims to use seaweed to remove carbon emissions, to the Guardian’s Zan Barberton.
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Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.
A 5,000 mile long belt of seaweed mitt weighing more than 11 million tons is sloshing around to the Atlantic Ocean. When some of it reaches Florida, it threatens to wreak havoc in the coastal waters and on the beaches, but it is very real.
The headlines proved to be untrue and misleading as this giant stretch of sargassum didn't end up coming to Florida's coast and it was never going to, but that doesn't mean the articles weren't based in some truth.
Sargassum is once again drifting toward South Florida's beaches. Patches of the thick seaweed have a combined weight of more than 6 1/2 metric tons. That's a lot of seaweed. Researchers are trying to predict which beaches it could hit.
The seaweed mass that is often referred to as a “blob” is known as the great Atlantic Sargassum belt. Collectively weighing 13 million tons and stretching over 5,000 miles – the belt is large enough to be seen from space.
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Marine scientists are tracking a 5,000-mile-wide seaweed bloom that is so large, it can be seen from space. These sargassum blooms are nothing new, but scientists say this one could be the largest in history.
For more info visit our website: https://www.travelinglifestyle.net/sargassum- seaweed-to-cover-floridas-beaches-in-record-amounts- in-2023/ We cover popular and the most affected places in Florida such as Key West, Miami, Panama Beach, Fort Lauderdale, etc.
Sargassum inundation in the eastern Caribbean Sea will continue but to a lesser degree. The southern portions of the Bahamas may see some drifting mats of Sargassum transported from the eastern Caribbean Sea. We will closely monitor and track Sargassum throughout the central Atlantic.
“Sargassum abundance in the interior central Atlantic increased, but it increased so substantially that the abundance reached a new record from all previous December months,” the USF sargassum experts published online. “This indicates that 2024 will be another major Sargassum year.”
A newly established population, driven by shifting wind patterns, is now thriving in the open ocean. This region is called the "Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt." Massive amounts of Sargassum from this area are transported west into the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and tropical South Atlantic via ocean currents.
Collect directly from the water to prevent sinking of dead or dying Sargassum. Collect in a manner that minimizes taking sand during the process; remove any sand from the collected Sargassum. Set clear guidelines for the process to avoid disturbing or harming marine life. Check for trapped marine life (e.g., baby ...
According to the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat), sargassum is a direct consequence of pollution and climate change. The algae are not dangerous and do not cause any rash to tourists, but they prevent the arrival of sea turtles as they become entangled in the sargassum.
Scientists agree that the GASB is seasonal, is maintained by the availability of a source population of Sargassum in the Atlantic, is sustained by nutrients from deep ocean currents and land-based sources, varies due to changes in temperature and salinity, and is influenced by wind and current circulation.
Pollution: nutrient-rich waters act as fertilizer for the seaweed (it was thought that they were reproducing locally as a result of more nutrients). Disturbance in liquid boundaries: winds, storms, and spiraling currents help disperse Sargassum throughout the world's oceans.
Where will sargassum hit in Florida? It's possible for sargassum to wash up on any beach in Florida, but there are some beaches where it's rare or underwhelming, and some where huge masses of the seaweed are expected every summer.
– That giant blob of stinky seaweed that was headed to Florida earlier this year has shrunk, and what's out there is less than scientists have seen in recent years. That's according to a report by researchers at the University of South Florida's Optical Oceanography Lab.
Sargassum, like other algae, relies on sunlight and produces oxygen during periods of photosynthesis and can consume a large amount of oxygen during respiration.
The source of this seaweed — which looks a bit like a brambly plant — is an enormous patch of Sargassum in the open ocean, known as the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt. It stretches more than 5,000 miles from West Africa to the Caribbean. And the amount of algae it contains has exploded in recent years.
Where does seaweed come from? One type of seaweed commonly found on beaches is Sargassum, a free-floating seaweed found in the warm waters of the Atlantic. In the Sargasso Sea, Sargassum provides a rich environment for wildlife that has been called a floating rainforest.
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