Besides its catastrophic impact on tourism, sargassum is also a public health concern, says Wang. When it decays, it attracts insects that can cause skin irritation, while hydrogen sulphide exposure from rotting sargassum has been linked to neurological, digestive and respiratory symptoms.
The stranded seaweed poses a serious threat to marine wildlife too. The huge piles of seaweed prevent turtles from nesting and ensnare dolphins and fish in the coral reefs. Allen and a team of researchers from the universities of Exeter and Bath devised a process called hydrothermal liquefaction HTL , which uses high pressure and temperature to split wet biomass into four components: a bio oil that can be upgraded to biodiesel, water-soluble organic compounds used to produce fertiliser, carbon dioxide which the researchers say they aim to capture rather than release into the atmosphere and char, a solid material containing all the metals found in the seaweed, which the team also plans to recover at a later stage.
Nylon fishing nets tangled in the coral reefs are also turned into fertiliser. Researchers believe the growing sargassum blooms are down to a combination of changing ocean and wind currents, and the deforestation of the Amazon Credit: Getty Images. There are some drawbacks, though. The process is energy-intensive and runs on fossil fuels, says Allen, though heat from the process can be recovered and reused to improve efficiency.
The project is still in the research phase and the researchers have converted kg lb of sargassum to date but Allen hopes to scale it up and partner with companies and governments to tackle the issue. The aim is to find a solution to the sargassum problem that is economically viable and supports the local community. In parts of Mexico and the Caribbean, locals are taking the matter into their own hands and finding innovative ways to turn the environmental disaster on their coastlines into a sustainable economic opportunity.
Some are turning sargassum into materials from paper to building materials. The Biomaya Initiative, an organisation established to deal with the sargassum glut, hires local residents to collect the foul-smelling seaweed from the beaches, and then cleans it to remove metals and plastics. Mats of it drift around the ocean, held afloat by gas-filled bladders that look like grapes. The Sargassum fish, for example, is a small, frog-faced predator whose body has adapted to perfectly mimic the seaweed.
The Caribbean would usually experience a few small mats of sargassum washing ashore in a given year, until , when the seaweed first began arriving in unexpectedly large waves. Similar pileups have occurred almost every year since; and saw especially bad blooms. Some countries have set up nets to block the incoming algae, or hired people to clear affected beaches with rakes and backhoes.
And still the sargassum comes. The seaweed does have one very convenient trait: The chlorophyll pigment within it reflects infrared light more strongly than the surrounding seawater does. To satellites that detect infrared, sargassum blazes like a bonfire. Six years ago, Jim Gower from Fisheries and Oceans Canada used satellite images to show that the bloom had an unusual origin. In April, sargassum had begun growing off the coast of Brazil and near the mouth of the Amazon River, in an area far south of its normal range.
By July, it had spread across the entire Atlantic. By analyzing 19 years of satellite images, they showed that the belt first appeared in , and has reappeared almost every summer since except for Today, many, many, species of Sargassum have been identified; however, Sargassum natans and Sargassum fluitans are the most relevant to us. At first glance, beach-lovers might view it as nothing more than a foul-smelling annoyance and sure, you may want to keep your distance once it starts to decompose ; however, do remember that the once floating mats were home to and source of food for a huge variety of sea life.
In fact, several creatures, like the Sargassum fish a type of frogfish , are born, reproduce, and die solely within this environment!
Sargassum is a prime nursery habitat for a diversity of large fish, such as mahi mahi a. Where did it come from? Local experts think this particular bout of Sargassum originated off the coast of South America. When ocean conditions are ripe, pelagic i. On the other hand, within the Sargasso Sea a sea full of sargassum, as the name suggests, about 10 million tons of it! Did you know? Why so much? No clear answer! Sargassum reproduction is asexual, which means that every bit of the same species could probably be traced back to its original ancestor; therefore, some consider it the largest organism in the world!
FAU study shows this year's sargassum bloom close to matching Anyone who's been to the beach lately knows there's a lot of seaweed.
Researchers at Florida Atlantic University said had some of the most sargassum we've seen on our beaches. By: Miranda Christian. Crystal clear water and a light breeze is a perfect day at the beach for Vicki Reis.
For the past several years, scientists at FAU have noticed more sargassum in the ocean.
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