Visitors visiting beaches in Florida may be in for a rude awakening. Supposedly, a giant mass of seaweed created in the Atlantic Ocean is on its way to Florida shoreline, as well as other Gulf of Mexico coastlines. Sargassum, the stinky and potentially hazardous seaweed, has been creating enormous blooms in the Atlantic for years. Scientists believe that this year’s sargassum mass may be the greatest on record.
The most recent sargassum mass stretches over 5,000 miles from the coast of Africa to the Gulf of Mexico. According to Dr. Brian Lapointe of Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, the seaweed blob is currently traveling west. It will shortly move across the Caribbean and arrive in the Gulf of Mexico this summer. The unwelcome image will be seen on Florida beaches around July.
This year’s sargassum bloom began earlier than usual and more than doubled in size between December and January. He told CNN that the mass “was greater in January than it has ever been since this new region of sargassum growth began in 2011”.
“This is an entirely new oceanographic phenomenon that is creating such a problem, really a catastrophic problem, for tourism in the Caribbean region where it piles up on beaches up to five or six feet deep,” Lapointe added.
Locals in Barbados used “1,600 dump trucks a day to clean the beaches of this seaweed”, he noted.
Sargassum is a name that refers to over 300 different kinds of brown algae
Sargassum is a name that refers to over 300 different kinds of brown algae. The most abundant species in the Atlantic are Sargassum natans and Sargassum fluitans. It floats and provides food and safety to a variety of sea species, as well as a home for loggerhead sea turtles and other fish.
Sargassum, on the other hand, becomes a concern as it reaches the beaches. It not only makes navigating difficult, but it also generates a gas that smells like rotten eggs and can cause respiratory difficulties in humans due to the deadly hydrogen sulfide it emits. Its flesh also contains arsenic, which can cause health problems if consumed accidentally.