Huge Blobs of Seaweed Are Choking the Caribbean’s Iconic White Sand Beaches
Massive blobs of sargassum seaweed are taking over Caribbean beaches. The seaweed explosion is fueled by pollution washing into the ocean from rivers in the Americas and Africa. The Sargasso Sea is often referred to as a golden, floating rainforest for its vast floating sargassum blooms and the wide variety of sea life that it supports. Early 2010, what scientists refer to as “Sargassum events” have been occurring more frequently and are lasting longer, and the amount of algae has massively multiplied. Emerging studies reveal many reasons, driven by human activity in rivers far from the region, such as toxic chemicals in the water, air pollution and dumping of organic waste.