“Before 2011, it was there but we couldn’t observe it with satellites because it wasn’t dense enough,” Barnes told NBC News. They have since documented their proliferation in the tropical Atlantic. More than a decade ago, scientists noticed that the unsightly blooms were beginning to grow at alarming rates. Red tides struck the southwest Florida coast last week, killing fish and sickening residents. “It can really threaten critical infrastructure,” Barnes added. Marinas can get completely inundated and boats can’t navigate through,” he said. “t can block intake valves for things like power plants or desalination plants. LaPointe said massive piles typically wash ashore in South Florida in May, but the algae are already inundating beaches in Key West.īrian Barnes, an assistant research professor at the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Science, told NBC News that the sargassum can cause major problems even in coastal waters.
VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Cleaning on the main beach in the center of Playa del Carmen in Mexico, covered with sargassum seaweed. Rafts of brown seaweed from the so-called sargassum bloom have washed up on Miami Beach. However, they can wreak havoc closer to shore, where they block light from reaching coral and negatively impact air and water quality as the seaweed rots. The thick algae mats are mostly harmless as they drift between Africa’s western coast and the Gulf of Mexico - and even provide a habitat for certain marine life and absorb carbon dioxide. “What we’re seeing in the satellite imagery does not bode well for a clean beach year,” he added. “It’s incredible,” Brian LaPointe, a research professor at Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, told the news outlet. The 5,000-mile-wide sargassum bloom - believed to be the largest in history at twice the width of the continental US - is drifting ominously toward the Sunshine State, NBC News reported. Green handouts shaped SVB biz, DeSantis exposes book-ban hoax and other commentaryįlorida ban on gender transitioning for minors now in effectĪrmy parachutist on famed ‘Golden Knights’ team dies after ‘hard landing’Ī giant seaweed blob so large it can be seen from space is threatening to transform beaches along Florida’s Gulf coast into a brown morass, scientists say. Transing tweens: Team Biden’s gender extremism knows no bounds
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