It's 5000 miles wide. It weighs an estimated 10-million pounds. And it's now arriving in earnest on some of the most popular Florida beaches.
While a relatively regular event, the 2023 sargassum algae bloom is one of the largest in recorded history, as Open Jaw reported 17MAR. At the time, media reports said the floating mat of brown algae stretched from Africa to Florida and the Yucatan Peninsula, and was starting to make landfall. But much of the mass was still floating westward across the Atlantic towards Florida, the Caribbean and Mexican beaches, and scientists didn't yet know where the enormous bulk of it would hit.
Sargassum is a naturally-occuring algae, but over the last decade or so, its seasonal growth has ballooned, overwhelming many beach destinations. When it washes up on beaches, it’s smelly (think: rotten eggs), unsightly, and can even be toxic. As USAToday reports, “some species produce toxins that affect the food chain or deplete the oxygen in the water when they start to decay, causing fish kills and the die-off of other marine species.”
Now, Atlantic coast residents and visitors to Florida are bracing for what's being billed as a "hot, smelly summer."
After weeks of watching and speculation, reports say Brevard County, home to popular Cocoa Beach, is already seeing more sargassum than in previous years. Local news is showing already higher volumes of sargassum than usual in Marathon beach. Social media videos show the seaweed arriving in Pensacola on the northern Gulf Coast, too.
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While some municipalities deploy heavy machinery to clear the beaches when sargassum begins to pile up, the sheer volume of the mass of seaweed still heading steadily west towards some of the most popular beach destinations as summer holidays draws near has a lot of people worried about the travel experience this summer.
