The Caribbean coasts of Florida, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and different international locations are threatened by a big mass of sargassum seaweed that has accrued within the Atlantic Ocean. This mass would possibly put a big damper on the vacationer season.
Sargassum has lengthy shaped substantial blooms within the Atlantic, and scientists have noticed huge accumulations since 2011. However, this yr’s sargassum bloom, which spans greater than 5,000 miles from the coast of Africa to the Gulf of Mexico, will be the largest in historical past.
Dr. Brian Lapointe, a researcher at Florida Atlantic College’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, predicts the algae can be seen on Florida seashores starting in July because the patch, at the moment shifting westward, makes its means via the Caribbean and up into the Gulf of Mexico this summer season.
According to Lapointe, this yr’s Sargassum bloom began early and doubled in measurement between December and January. Lapointe instructed CNN’s Rosemary Church that the mass “was larger 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 5 or 6 feet deep,” Lapointe added.
He talked about that individuals in Barbados have been using “1,600 dump trucks a day to clean the beaches of this seaweed to make it suitable for tourists and recreation on the beaches.”
Why 2023 is the yr of sargassum
According to Dr. Gustavo Jorge Goni, an oceanographer on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, the abundance of algae can change from yr to yr relying on ecological elements influenced by modifications in vitamins, precipitation and wind patterns. This is just like the way in which vegetation and crops on the bottom can change from yr to yr.
According to Goni, ocean currents may also have an effect on annual progress and the quantity of sargassum that accumulates. The ocean comprises each phosphorus and nitrogen, which the algae can use for meals.
Lapointe found that nitrogen concentrations had elevated by 45% after taking samples from the area the place the sargassum originated and in contrast them to earlier samples from the Eighties. The super progress of the bloom, the researchers stated, is probably going as a result of this enhance.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, rivers which can be polluted with phosphorus and nitrogen from human actions reminiscent of agriculture and fossil gasoline manufacturing can discharge these substances into the ocean.
Goni additionally warns that since analysis into these sargassum accumulations remains to be in its infancy, it’s conceivable that data of the expansion of the algae will change over time.
“Whatever we believe we know today, it may change tomorrow,” he stated.