Scientists say a record amount of seaweed hit the Caribbean and nearby areas in May

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- A grounds magnitude of sargassum piled up crossed the Caribbean and adjacent areas successful May, and much is expected this month, according to a caller report.

The brownish prickly algae is suffocating shorelines from Puerto Rico to Guyana and beyond, disrupting tourism, sidesplitting wildlife and adjacent releasing toxic gases that forced 1 schoolhouse successful the French Caribbean land of Martinique to temporarily close.

The magnitude — 38 cardinal metric tons — is the biggest quantity of algae observed crossed the Caribbean Sea, the occidental and eastbound Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico since scientists began studying the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt successful 2011, said Brian Barnes, an adjunct probe prof astatine the University of South Florida who worked connected the study published connected Monday by the University of South Florida’s Optical Oceanography Lab.

The previous grounds was acceptable successful June 2022, with immoderate 22 cardinal metric tons.

“The peaks conscionable look to support getting bigger and bigger twelvemonth aft year,” helium said.

But scientists don’t cognize wherefore yet.

“It’s the million-dollar question,” helium said. “I don’t person a supremely satisfying answer.”

Three antithetic types of sargassum beryllium successful the Caribbean and adjacent areas, reproducing asexually arsenic they stay afloat acknowledgment to tiny aerial sacs. They thrive successful antithetic ways depending connected sunlight, nutrients and h2o temperature, factors that scientists are presently studying, Barnes said.

Experts besides person said that cultivation runoff, warming waters and changes successful wind, existent and rainfall could person an effect.

While ample clumps of algae successful the unfastened water are what Barnes called a “healthy, blessed ecosystem” for creatures ranging from tiny shrimp to endangered oversea turtles, sargassum adjacent oregon connected enactment tin wreak havoc.

It tin artifact sunlight that coral reefs request to survive, and if the algae sinks, it tin smother reefs and oversea grasses. Once it reaches shore, the creatures surviving successful the algae dice oregon are picked disconnected by birds, Barnes said.

Huge piles of stinky seaweed besides are a headache for the Caribbean, wherever tourism often generates large wealth for tiny islands.

“It is simply a challenge, but it’s surely not affecting each azygous inch of the Caribbean,” said Frank Comito, peculiar advisor to the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association.

In the fashionable tourer spot of Punta Cana successful the Dominican Republic, officials person invested successful barriers to forestall sargassum from reaching the shore, helium said.

In the Dutch Caribbean territory of St. Maarten, crews with backhoes were dispatched successful precocious May arsenic portion of an exigency clean-up aft residents complained of beardown smells of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, which tin impact a person’s respiratory system.

“The odor is rather terrible,” Barnes said.

Meanwhile, successful the French Caribbean, officials expect to soon usage retention barges and an upgraded peculiar vas that tin cod respective tons of seaweed a day.

The sargassum “disfigures our coasts, prevents swimming and makes beingness intolerable for section residents,” French Prime Minister François Bayrou precocious told reporters.

But Comito said specified vessels are “massively expensive” and not a fashionable option, noting that different enactment — utilizing dense instrumentality —- is labor-intensive.

“You person to beryllium cautious due to the fact that determination could beryllium oversea turtle eggs affected,” helium said. “It’s not similar you tin spell successful determination and massively rake and scrape the full thing.”

Some Caribbean islands conflict financially, truthful astir of the cleanup is done by hotels, with immoderate offering guests refunds oregon a escaped shuttle to unaffected beaches.

Every year, the magnitude of sargassum expands successful precocious spring, peaks astir summertime and starts to diminution successful the precocious autumn oregon aboriginal winter, Barnes said.

The caller grounds acceptable is hardly stationary — experts said they expect adjacent much sargassum for June.

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