Golden Tides Threaten Mexico's and Florida's Reefs and Beaches

A massive lump of sargassum seaweed is floating toward Florida, part of a floating mass estimated to weigh 8.7 million tons. It covers the surface and will eventually collect on beaches, die, and rot.

Sargassum is a gold-colored macroalgae found in temperate and tropical oceans around the globe. It can form floating islands that stretch for miles, providing shelter and food to birds, fish, sea turtles, and crustaceans. However, it's become increasingly nomadic as warming ocean temperatures and nutrient runoff have helped it blossom in unfamiliar waters. It can sap the nutrients and oxygen from the reefs it engulfs, and it gets worse when it makes landfall. It stinks.

A lot of sargassum has already made landfall on the Caribbean coast of Mexico. Riviera Maya News reports that in Cozumel, seven tons of sargassum have been removed from 700 meters of beach. More than 71 tons of sargassum was removed from Cancun beaches in January. Puerto Morelos has begun installing anti-sargassum barriers.

Scientists hope to find a way to process sargassum piling up on beaches and turn it into something useful.