Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt Threatens Tourism in Both Mexico and Florida

As scientists become increasingly concerned about the effects of the algae, a massive carpet of seaweed stretching 5,000 miles is set to cause problems along the beaches of Florida and Mexico.

The "Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt" is a massive bloom of brown algae that extends from West Africa's coast to the Gulf of Mexico.

It is the world's largest seaweed bloom, weighing approximately 20 million tons and visible from space.

A 5,000-mile blanket of seaweed threatens the beaches of Florida

(Photo : DANIEL SLIM/AFP via Getty Images)

Seaweed is typically harmless and has benefits such as providing a habitat for fish and absorbing carbon dioxide, as per Insider.

However, the sargassum, which spans roughly twice the width of the United States, could wreak havoc on beaches as ocean currents push it toward land.

While scientists have been concerned about the consequences of the Sargassum Belt for the past decade, experts said this year's bloom is exciting, according to NBC News reporting by Denise Chow published Saturday.

"It's incredible," NBC News reported Brian LaPointe, a research professor at Florida Atlantic University's Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute. "The satellite imagery we're seeing does not bode well for a clean beach year."

LaPointe, who has studied sargassum for four decades, told the news outlet that despite the piles usually washing ashore in May, beaches in Key West are already covered with the algae.

Beaches in Mexico, such as Cancun, Playa del Carmen, and Tulum, are also bracing for a large sargassum buildup this week.

The size of the seaweed mass grows each year, with record-breaking increases in 2018 and 2022, according to Brian Barnes, an assistant research professor at the University of South Florida's College of Marine Science.

He claimed that this year is on track to break these records.

According to Sky News, the mass of algae can destroy coastal ecosystems, suffocate coral, harm wildlife, threaten infrastructure, and decrease air and water quality.

According to one 2019 study, deforestation and fertilizer use may be to blame for the alarming rate at which the mass is growing, all of which are exacerbated by climate change.

Furthermore, as beached sargassum dies and rots, it emits a "distinctive rotten-egg odor," as previously reported by Insider, posing a major problem for tourism in both Mexico and Florida.

Hotels and resorts in Mexico, for example, spend millions of dollars each year to remove sargassum from their beaches, hiring workers to collect it and transport it elsewhere.

Also Read: Expansion of Worldwide Seaweed Farming Might Contribute Significantly To Solving the World's Issues

Waters that are warmer and more nutrified

Data collected over the last decade has revealed the most likely causes of these seaweed invasions: Saharan dust clouds, rising temperatures, and an increasing human nitrogen footprint, as per FIU News.

Nutrients feed sargassum, which thrives in warmer water, just as they do red tide blooms.

Climate change also increases nutrient upwelling from deep ocean waters at the West African end of the sargassum belt.

The recent influxes appear to have originated along Brazil's Atlantic coast, rather than in the Sargasso Sea.

Fertilizer from large-scale agriculture and ranching flows into the Amazon River and then into the ocean.

The Mississippi River also contributes nutrients to the Gulf of Mexico.

Rainfall caused by climate change increases runoff.

Sargassum poses a threat to tourism, which is a major economic engine in the Caribbean and Florida.

Mexico has sent Navy ships to Cancun to assist with cleanup efforts.

To keep seaweed offshore, some Caribbean destinations have installed floating barriers similar to those used in oil spills.

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley compared the economic fallout to that of a hurricane in 2019.

There is currently no effective way to dispose of such large quantities of seaweed.

It's time-consuming and costly. In 2019, the cost of removing sargassum from 15 miles of Miami-Dade beaches was $45 million.

Some towns plow seaweed into the sand.

Others, such as Fort Lauderdale, collect it, wash it to remove the salt, and turn it into natural fertilizer or mulch.

Some entrepreneurs in Mexico are compressing it into bricks and using it for building construction, similar to adobe.

In the long run, only addressing climate change and nitrogen emissions from human activities will yield long-term solutions.

Related article: Carbon-Sucking Seaweed Farm Proposed to Curb Climate Change