FGCU Professor explains Sargassum Seaweed Blob in the Atlantic Ocean

I'm thinking of blob like the movie that's going to come and swallow up. It's it's it's a it's a floating seaweed. A floating seaweed. So as we battle red tide here in our area, many are now looking to the future as there are reports of tons of seaweed approaching Florida's coastline. It is the Great Atlantic Sargasum Belt and it naturally occurs every year. But this year some claim that the seaweed could overtake Florida beaches. So meteorologist Andrew Shipley spoke with an expert at Florida Gulf Coast University who says despite what you're hearing in those scary headlines, you have little to worry about.

This is brown algae. It's not like red tide. It's not like blue green algae. FGCU's water school, Dr. Barry Rosen specializes in aquatic biology and harmful algal blooms. He says while sarcasm can cause minor issues, it doesn't create any toxins like other algal blooms. The only time it becomes a nuisance and that's the difference between a harmful algal bloom and a nuisance bloom is when it can build up on a beach and start to decay.

And while it builds up along the coast, sarcasm can smother coral reefs, alter the pH of water and has the potential to choke out local economies by closing tourism sites, cutting off marinas and constricting fishing yields. But in the open sea, it can create a critical habitat for a variety of fish and wildlife, and it also creates a ton of oxygen via photosynthesis. All all algae produce oxygen as part of what they do. And without it, 50 percent of the earth, that's that's where our oxygen comes from is from algae, including this seaweed. In February, sarcasm recorded the second highest abundance for a month. But in recent satellite data from NASA, the bloom appears to have slightly decreased. And the question we all want to know the answer to is it going to come to our shore? We really don't know that.

Dr. Rosen says Southwest Florida residents should be more focused on the current red tide versus the potential of sarcasm seaweed washing up on the beach. Right now we have red tide. That's not a wait and see. It's here. To me, that is a much more important issue. And certainly it's real now.

We don't know what Sargassum is going to do. We don't know which way it's going to drift. Dr. Rosen says it's completely possible that Sargassum doesn't even reach Southwest Florida's coastline. And if it does reach you in the near future, it would compete with red tide for nutrients and release its own set of compounds. The combination would likely decrease our current red tide predicament. In Cape Coral, meteorologist Andrew Shipley, Fox four.

This is very interesting. The University of South Florida released a forecast for their sarcasm at the beginning of the month of the month, presenting a glimmer of hope for the 2023 bloom that it may not be as large as previously believed. USF's forecast calls for Sargassum to increase in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico during the next few months.

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