Midsummer is usually when sargassum, the floating seaweed that often washes up in malodorous piles on Florida beaches, starts to wane. But not this year.
Total amounts of the floating seaweed in the Atlantic Basin have actually continued to increase, according to a monthly report by University of South Florida Optical Oceanography Lab.
The lab uses satellite imagery to determine sargassum matt density in different sectors of the basin, which stretches from the Gulf to the coast of West Africa.
The July satellite imagery indicates higher-than-normal levels in the Gulf, the Caribbean and the western Atlantic. Those regions can send matts of sargassum toward Florida on trade winds and ocean currents.
What does that mean for Florida beach conditions in August? The continuous westward transport of sargassum could mean continuous beaching events around the Caribbean and Florida, the report said, it’s just difficult to say where.
Large amounts of seaweed are currently drifting in Florida’s direction, but winds and currents could change.
Researchers at USF say the wind and ocean currents are too variable to predict.
“Although the amount (in the Atlantic Basin) is huge,” said Chuanmin Hu, one of the University of South Florida researchers involved with the report, “Florida has received and will continue to receive just a tiny little bit of this amount.”
For South Florida to get coasted with the stuff, a strong east wind needs to intercept the seaweed drifting on the Gulf Stream and send it toward land.
Researchers expect sargassum to diminish as the season progresses into fall.
Though sargassum supports marine life in the open ocean, once it decomposes on shore, it can release hydrogen sulfide, a gas that has an odor reminiscent of rotten eggs, and can cause respiratory problems.
The amount of the often-stinky seaweed that washes up on beaches has spiked tremendously in the last dozen years, bringing frustration to South Florida beachgoers and causing real economic damage in the Caribbean.
Sargassum has long been part of the Atlantic Ocean’s food chain, and historically grew within the Sargasso Sea, an area surrounding Bermuda and reaching about halfway across the Atlantic.
Around 2011, sargassum blooms started to shift south, closer to the equator. This not only increased their size, but put them on a trajectory that swept them into the Gulf, and thus eventually onto South Florida beaches.
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