Sun, Surf, and Sargassum

Traveling down to Key West, Stockton students got to experience the southern most point of the United States. One such destination is well known for its small-town shops, it’s warm weather, and its beautiful beaches. However, students were surprised to find those beaches covered with a mass of dead and rotting material giving off a terrible smell. This was Sargassum, a type of brown macro algae or seaweed. The seaweeds population has been growing since 2011, and ocean winds have been pushing the masses of seaweed onto the beaches. The dead plants then rot in the sun and release a terrible smell that has been preventing people from enjoying the beaches. This still didn’t stop some students from trying to make the most of the time spent there.

The issue with Sargassum is well documented and discussed in the Florida Keys. Many posts and articles online are discussing the current issue in Key West with many tourist and natives complaining about the seaweed blooms. People are calling on the local governments to do something about the Sargassum and many are trying their best. The extent of their efforts is mostly trying to rake up the seaweed every morning from 7 am to 10 am. This is limited though since they can’t use heavy machinery like bulldozers or trucks to rake the beaches due to sea turtle nests. Using such vehicles would destroy the turtle nests by tearing up the sand so government workers are restricted to rakes and bags. The efforts aren’t nearly effective enough though as the beaches quickly become recovered in seaweed hours after it is cleaned up. This problem only seems to occur on eastern and southern parts of Florida due to the winds, and many Gulf facing beaches are left untouched by the waves of seaweed. Local governments continue to search for some solution to the issue before the valuable tourism market is affected by this influx of seaweed ruining the beaches.

If you want to look at the articles and discussions about the Sargassum on the beaches specifically in Key West, you can look at these articles and websites:

https://keysnews.com/article/story/sargassum-is-snowballing-scientists-say/

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/sound-off-south-florida/fl-ne-sosf-sargassum-seaweed-follow-20190603-zbrybsojljbilftghschmhxloy-story.html

If you want to learn about Sargassum and its life cycle, you can look through this website:

http://www.biologydiscussion.com/algae/sargassum-occurrence-features-and-reproduction/46977