WASHINGTON — A 5,000-mile seaweed belt prowling in the Atlantic Ocean is anticipated in the next coupleof months to wash onto beaches in the Caribbean Sea, South Florida, and the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico.
The Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt — as the biomass extending from West Africa to the Gulf of Mexico is called — consistsof spread spots of seaweed on the open sea, rather than one constant blob of sargassum. It’s not a brand-new incident, however satellite images recorded in February revealed an earlier start than typical for such a big build-up in the open ocean.
Once it cleans ashore, sargassum is a problem — a thick, brown algae that carpets beaches, launching a pungent odor as it rots and entangling people and animals who action into it. For hotels and resorts, cleaning the things off beaches can quantity to a day-and-night operation.
Here’s a appearance at this year’s sargassum seaweed blossom:
WHAT IS SARGASSUM?
A leafy brown seaweed festooned with what appearance like berries. The seaweed drifts on the open ocean and — unlike other seaweeds — replicates on the water’s surfacearea, assisted by air-filled structures that offer it buoyancy.
Sargassum comesfrom in a huge stretch of the Atlantic Ocean called the Sargasso Sea, which lies well off the southeast U.S. The Sargasso has no land borders; rather, 4 dominating ocean currents kind its limits.
The matted brown seaweed extends for miles throughout the ocean and supplies breeding ground, food and environment for fish, sea turtles and marine birds, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“It’s a vibrant, continuously altering set of pieces of this big mass,” stated Rick Lumpkin, director of the Physical Oceanography Division at NOAA. “It’s not one huge constant blob heading straight to South Florida.”
WHY IS IT A PROBLEM?
Sargassum stacks up on beaches where it rapidly disintegrates under hot sun, launching g