Off the Wall - A Florida Sargassum Explosion. Time to Mow the Beach!
Massive seaweed blob heading toward Florida: ‘A new record year’
The amount of sargassum seaweed moving through the Atlantic and Caribbean reached record levels in April, according to researchers at the University of South Florida.
The university’s Optical Oceanography Laboratory uses satellite data to track sargassum as it drifts in a large mat between the Atlantic coast of Africa and the Gulf, occasionally washing up on Florida beaches in massive amounts and emitting a foul stench as it decomposes.
The thick blanket of sargassum provides habitat for marine life, but can wreak havoc as winds push it ashore. In addition to turning away beachgoers, it can block light from reaching coral and negatively impact air and water quality as it decomposes.
USF researchers predicted earlier this year that 2025 would be a “major” year for sargassum abundance. Total amounts in the eastern Caribbean and western Atlantic have reached “surprisingly high” levels, according to USF researchers. They were 200% higher than their historical records in April.
The total amount for all regions combined “was 40% higher than the all-time high in June 2022, which makes 2025 a new record year,” researchers wrote.
The Optical Oceanography Laboratory has been tracking…
Gonna be a good summer for fishing the rip this summer
That’s the nursery where I’ve scoped up little baby tuna marlin etc at least that’s how it is offshore from Venice, Louisiana. I know I was a charter boat captain