A large floating jungle of sargassum seaweed—so giant it may be seen from area—is on a collision course with the North America mainland. It’s more than likely hitting land someplace on the Gulf of Mexico shoreline, in response to scientists monitoring the phenomenon.
“It’s incredible,” professor Brian LaPointe from Florida Atlantic University informed NBC News. “What we’re seeing in the satellite imagery does not bode well for a clean beach year.”
Floating sargassum weeds harbor an abundance of small fish. Big mats of floating weeds happen yearly alongside the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the U.S. They are alternative fishing areas for anglers focusing on a wide range of gamefish, together with marlin, sailfish, tuna, dolphin, and plenty of others. Prized gamefish feed on the smaller fish that stay in and underneath the weed mats.
will increase in two consecutive months, the general Sargassum amount within the central Atlantic Ocean
decreased from January to February, though this abundance (6.1 million tons) continues to be the second
highest quantity recorded for the month of February. NASA, University of South Florida Optical Oceanography Lab
Because of its ecological significance, sargassum off the southern Atlantic states was designated as “Essential Fish Habitat” in 2003, in response to NOAA, which affords these areas particular federal safety. An overabundance of sargassum when it reaches shore, nonetheless, could be disastrous.
Sargassum Seaweed Mats Are Growing in Size
LaPointe is an authority on sargassum, and whereas giant mats generally wash ashore in south Florida, he says Key West seashores already are inundated with seaweed. The east coast of Mexico is making ready for an enormous inflow of weeds, which might stack as much as three ft excessive, onto its famed Gulf Coast seashores.
While sargassum weeds on shore are extra of a nuisance than an issue, in large portions sargassum could be bother, says professor Brian Barnes from the University of South Florida College of Marine Science. Seaweed by the tons can cowl seashores all through South Florida, the Caribbean, and Mexico. It additionally covers reefs the place it may choke coral, and it diminishes water and air high quality because it rots on shore.
Last yr, large piles of sargassum on St. Croix within the U.S. Virgin Islands prompted water shortages and a state of emergency. In 2018, the islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique had 1000’s of individuals with respiratory issues heading to medical clinics from fouled air ensuing from rotting sargassum.
The 5,000-mile extensive weed pile heading to mainland North America is among the largest recorded, and sargassum mats appears to be an rising drawback alongside the Atlantic Coast.
“Historically, as far back as we have records, sargassum has been a part of the ecosystem, but the scale now is just so much bigger,” Barnes stated. “What we might have thought was a serious bloom 5 years in the past is now not even a blip.
“Before 2011, it [sargassum] was there but we couldn’t observe it with satellites because it wasn’t dense enough. Since then, it has just exploded and we now see these huge aggregations.”