Sargassum washed up in mass quantity in 2018, 2021, and 2022 on Florida’s beaches. This year’s algal bloom could be even worse. 
A February map from the Optical Oceanography Lab at the University of South Florida showing a large area of sargassum seaweed moving toward the west. The red and yellow colors represent areas with large amounts of seaweed. (Photo courtesy USF Optical Oceanography Lab)
It’s feared a bumper crop of seaweed is headed for Florida.
Known as “Sargassum Algae,” it’s already showing up on some Caribbean beaches in Eastern Mexico near Cancun and on some beaches near Key West, Florida.
This is going to be an interesting story to follow. It’s started showing up in articles. It comes as reports of Red Tide’s reappearance has been making news on some stretches of Florida’s Gulf Coast.
Scientists have been following a large mass of what’s known as Sargassum Algae in the Atlantic, which in large quantities can lend the waters in which it floats a brownish color.
Gismodo reports such seaweed “blooms” have clogged beaches with tons of matted algae which, when decomposing, emit hydrogen sulfide gas which smells like rotten eggs. Gizmodo adds, “The thick flotillas of organic matter can also end up clogging power plant intakes, desalination water plants, and stymying boat traffic”.
Concern about the Sargassum Seawood threat, as well as satellite tracking of it, ran in this St. Thomas Source report out of the U.S. Virgin Islands in the past week.
