Good News for Florida Beachgoers Dealing With Toxic Seaweed Blob
Every summer, the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt inundates beachgoers across the Caribbean and coastal southern United States as massive mounds of seaweed make their way ashore. This year was expected to be especially bad for Florida beachgoers after a never-before-seen amount was discovered this spring. But it looks like they'll now be able to breathe easily—literally.
A bulletin from the University of South Florida's Optical Oceanography Lab highlights scientists' surprise. They expected the mass of seaweed would start to shrink in June, but the drastic decrease last month in the Gulf of Mexico was "beyond expectation." The news comes after the blob set a record in April when scientists found 3 million tons of sargassum in the Caribbean Sea.
“Very little sargassum was found by the end of June in the Straits of Florida and along the east coast of Florida,” the bulletin said. "Looking ahead, because of the continued decreases of sargassum in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea and because the increases in the Central West Atlantic appeared to have slowed down, we predict that the sargassum amount in the Gulf of Mexico will remain minimal, and in the Caribbean Sea will either decrease or remain stable. This trend may continue in the next two to three months, which should be good news to the residents living in the Florida Keys and east coast of Florida as well as in the west coast of the Caribbean Sea."
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The smelly seaweed was a nuisance for beachgoers this spring. Sargassum smells like rotten eggs and emits toxic gases when it lands on shore. But now, during the popular dog days of summer, beaches across the state are turning up cleaner than expected.
Chuanmin Hu, a professor of optical oceanography at USF, told CNN that a decrease this big has “never happened in history at this time of year." While sargassum in Florida starts to recede in July and is mostly gone by September, Hu believes “the sargassum season for Florida is very likely over for this year."
Thankfully, it looks like you won't have to worry about slimy seaweed rubbing against your legs in the water. As for dangerous marine life, not so much.