Researchers at the University of South Florida’s Optical Oceanography Lab report that the Great Atlantic Sargassum Seaweed Belt – a mass of foul-smelling, record-breaking algae which began to appear on Florida’s famed beaches in spring – shrank by 75% in the Gulf of Mexico last month.
Scientists found 3 million tons of seaweed in the Caribbean Sea, a new record.
According to a report from the Optical Oceanography Lab the huge drop in the Gulf of Mexico in June was “beyond expectations,”despite the fact that scientists predicted the mass to decrease.
The bulletin stated that “Very Little Sargassum Was Found By the End of June In the Straits of Florida And Along the East Coast of Florida”,.
Chuanmin Hu is an optical oceanography professor from the University of South Florida. He says that such a rapid decline has never happened before at this time of the year.
He said that in Florida, sargassum usually begins to fall in July. By September it is mostly gone.
He predicts that “the sargassum is likely to be over this season in Florida.”
He added that he, along with his colleagues at the Optical Oceanography Lab, had heard about “clean beaches” in Florida.
Hu explained that the sargassum found on Florida beaches is from the Gulf of Mexico and western Caribbean. These “source regions” also do not see much sargassum. This is good news for Florida.
Stronger-than-average winds in the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico may have caused the sargassum to either break up into smaller clusters or sink to the ocean floor, although there is not enough data to determine a cause, Hu said.
Sargassum was observed to be significantly reduced in the Gulf of Mexico as well as the western Caribbean Sea. A surge was seen in the Central West Atlantic area. The overall sargassum population decreased throughout the month of June. According to the bulletin, the total mass of sargassum spanning West Africa to Gulf of Mexico was approximately 9 million tons by the end of June.
Hu said that although Florida’s beaches are pristine, in the eastern Caribbean “they will still see a great deal of sargassum.”
The bulletin states that the majority of Sargassum has been discovered on the southern coasts Hispaniola, Jamaica and Puerto Rico.
