A 5,000-mile-long belt of seaweed could land on the Galveston coast and parts of Florida within the next few weeks.
The 10-million-ton biomass is made up of sargassum, a type of seaweed that originates in the Sargasso Sea in the Atlantic and often accumulates on the coastline during summer months. Unlike other types of seaweed, sargassum reproduces and floats along the ocean’s surface, per PBS.
The exact reason why the pack of seaweed has grown so large is currently unknown, but Peter Morton, an associate research scientist in the Department of Oceanography in the College of Arts and Sciences at Texas A&M University, believes his team may have figured it out.
“Every living thing is made up of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus,” explained Morton, per a Texas A&M University news release. “So, one of the things that you can study as far as the healthiness of an organism is if those ratios are in balance. What we’ve found is that the nitrogen to phosphorus ratio in recent years’ [sargassum] belt is more than what you would expect compared to 50 years ago.”
Rick Lumpkin, director of the Physical Oceanography Division at NOAA, said that the grouping of seaweed is not one piece and is always changing.
“It’s a dynamic, constantly changing set of pieces of this large mass,” Lumpkin told PBS. “It’s not one big continuous blob heading straight to South Florida.”
Multiple concerns are associated with this grouping of seaweed making its way to land. One potential problem is that sargassum releases hydrogen sulfide as it degrades due to the sun. This “highly toxic” gas smells like a “rotten egg,” according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
In addition to the degradation issue, sargassum can negatively affect sea turtles that need to lay their eggs on beaches. Morton said that sargassum could play a role in the declining sea turtle population.
“If the beach is covered with [sargassum], the sea turtles won’t have anywhere to come ashore and nest because they aren’t able to dig through the [sargassum] to lay eggs in the sand,” said Morton, according to the Texas A&M University news release.
“So then, they’re trapped with nowhere to lay their eggs, which will lead to the sea turtle population declining,” Morton said.
Despite concerns about what may come from piles of seaweed accumulating on beaches, the Galveston County Twitter account said that sargassum is important for the ecosystem despite how annoying beachgoers may find it.
“Sargassum can be a nuisance, but it’s also critical to our ecosystem, serving as a home for various forms of marine life and helping to fortify our dunes,” said County officials in a tweet.
Morton said researchers have a general idea of how the sargassum is growing, but everyone who lives near the Atlantic Ocean may have to contribute to help solve the issue.
“I think we have a pretty good idea in a general sense of what’s happening, but there is definitely more to be understood,” Morton said, per the news release.
“We have to figure out what’s actually driving it and then convince people to adopt different techniques … It will take a lot of steps to get there, and it’s complicated. It’s not just a Florida problem; it’s not just a Caribbean problem; it’s a problem impacting anyone who lives along the Atlantic Ocean,” Morton claimed.