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Joined: Oct 1999
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Marty Offline OP
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You may have noticed a serious amount of seaweed covering the beach and even the shallow water for the past month. It is worse than I have seen since I've been here.

It's a strange and relatively unexplained phemonenon that has been plaguing much of the Eastern Carribbean since late last year. And it comes from an area near the Bermuda triangle.

The Sargasso Sea is an area in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean surrounded by ocean currents. The gulf stream and various currents are its "shores" and it is a swirling mass of sea weed and all of the trash (called the "Great North American Garbage Patch") that the currents carry. It's also home to the seaweed called sargasso that rises to the surface in huge quantities...it has been called a floating city. It's not just a bad thing...baby sea turtles use this area and the seaweed cover for protection so they can grow big and strong.

Starting last summer and fall islands like Anguilla and St. Marteen and as far south as Tobago have been reporting sargasso seaweed washing up on their shores in amounts never seen before. There is a very interesting NY Times Article about the build up in that Caribbean area and how an upscale resort closed for a month or two when the seaweed was washing up by the ton. (Check out some pictures in Antigua from a local blogger: WOW Sargasso. She also talks about how the giant rafts of weed are bringing in smaller, not normal native animals). Belize is not nearly so bad but it is worse than it has been in recent history.

Why is it moving all across the Caribbean as far south as Belize? No one really seems to know...

But beach staff in San Pedro are working a daily battle to clean up this stuff. So far, most hotels and resorts are able to keep their beaches relatively clean...let's hope it doesn't get any worse.


Click here to read the rest of the article and see more photos on San Pedro Scoop


Joined: Dec 2006
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Sargasso Sea
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Sargasso Sea (disambiguation).
The Sargasso Sea is a region in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by ocean currents. It is bounded on the west by the Gulf Stream; on the north, by the North Atlantic Current; on the east, by the Canary Current; and on the south, by the North Atlantic Equatorial Current. This system of currents forms the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre. All the currents deposit the marine plants and garbage they carry into this sea.
The Sargasso Sea is 700 statute miles wide and 2,000 statute miles long (1,100 km wide and 3,200 km long). It stretches from roughly 70 degrees west to 40 degrees west, and from 20 degrees north to 35 degrees north. Bermuda is near the western fringes of the sea. The Sargasso Sea is the only "sea" without shores.[1] The ocean water in the Sargasso Sea is distinctive for its deep blue color and exceptional clarity, with underwater visibility of up to 200 feet (61 m).[2]


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Usually in march the winds and currents vary a little and the sargassa escapes the sea and drifts ashore.


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If you'll examine closely a piece of floating sargasso weed by picking it up and looking closely, you might find tiny shrimps and seashorses that reside therein.

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As stinky as it is, this is great stuff! Hopefully, the resorts are using it in their gardening or digging a hole and burying it right on the beach (have seen resorts do this in Mexico, but never here....)

Joined: Dec 2006
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We do up North and it gives back some great sand.


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offshore the paddies make for some great fishing, the original FAD's...

Joined: Oct 2001
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The stuff we got is also infused with trash of every kind.
I found two plastic car bumpers yesterday. The small flakes of trash are the worst - it's really hard to get all of them out.
Please - all of you who read this and who take walks on the beach - could you take a little grocery bag with you and pick up one bag full each time you walk. If we all do this we can make a big dent in the trash.
I hate looking at it - you hate looking at it - and unfortunately our tourists get the impression that it's always like this (which it's not) and that we don't care.
I care - I hope you do too. I've been picking up trash by the bagfull and will continue to do so. The team at Indigo often cleans a full mile of beach, but this time its way more than this volunteer effort can handle. It is depressing to hear nearby residents complain about it and not do anything. If you can't or won't do it yourself, can you kindly ask your caretaker to take a day off from raking your yard or pruning your palms, and instead walk up the beach with a bag and collect plastic. The idea that you only clean in front of your place is ridiculous. The beach belongs to all of us and we need to take suitable responsibility for it.


Joined: Oct 2010
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Excellent post, Diane!

Agree completely, but it's a never-ending job. We cleaned up all the plastic from a fairly long stretch of unmaintained beach north of where we live twice, and within a week, it looked like we had never done anything. We've been traveling lately so have had no time to clean it again, and it is now probably twice as bad as before we cleaned it the first time. It's frustrating when our efforts don't even make a dent in the problem.... frown


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OK since we're on the subject, sea grass/sargassa is wonderful stuff for gardening , fill, fertilizer, it helps with tons of stuff and has a multitude of useful purposes...but, and you knew that was coming, The plastic in it is tricky. What you will discover as you put it in your yard or garden is that as it dries it shrinks to about 20% of its volume and then releases all the plastic garbage that is hidden in it. You'll think you picked it all out before you spread it all over your property but then you have plastic everywhere a real nasty mess of everything from bottle caps to syringes. Be forewarned :-)


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