But ocean currents are now pushing tons of seaweed onto beaches, causing wholesale environmental problems.
The view now from space is this: a massive blanket of seagrass some 8,000 kilometers wide threatens beaches along the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean.
According to Sky News, the cover could suffocate coral reefs, wreak havoc on coastal ecosystems, and reduce water and air quality due to rotting grasses.
“It’s unbelievable,” Brian LaPointe, a research professor at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University, told NBC News. “What we’re seeing in satellite imagery doesn’t bode well for a world where we’re trying to keep beaches clean.”
LaPointe, who has studied the Sargassum Belt for four decades, said huge mounds of weeds usually come to a beach in South Florida in May, but the beaches in Key West are already overgrown with algae from now on.
Parts of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, including Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Tulum, are bracing for up to a meter of “Sargassum Belt” in the coming days.
“Even if coral reefs are only in coastal waters, they can block entry to power plants or desalination plants, and they could completely flood ports and boats can’t navigate through them,” said Brian Barnes, a researcher at the University of Southern Florida’s College of Marine Sciences.
Last summer, the US Virgin Islands declared a state of emergency after unusually large amounts of weeds caused water shortages on St. Croix.
Barnes and his colleagues at the University of South Florida are using NASA data to map the Great Sargassum Atlantic Belt and its movements.
#Visible #space.. #seaweed #threatens #golden #beaches