The yellow brown stuff floating on the sea.

[miched]

Sailing in the Caribbean you will see streams of nasty looking yellow brown stuff floating on the surface of the water that may look like something in a babies diaper.  

 

It is an algae type seaweed that is now causing major problems on the beaches, especially in Mexico

 

http://www.seaweed.ie/sargassum/sargasso.php

 

https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/mexico-s-prized-beaches-threatened-by-smelly-algae-invasion-1.4416582

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

 

 

 

 

[shipshape sam]

It happens some years at our Beach house in the Inlet Beach, FL area, NW Florida panhandle area.  Most of the time it is the sargassum type of sea weed, but some times we get the green slimy type.  

 

It has not happened for many years, but we have had it covering the beach with sargassum like the beach picture.  Back then, county employees came and scraped it into large piles and eventually hauled it away.  

 

Thanks for giving some links.

 

We just got back from a cruise out of Tampa to Key West and Cuba and saw the sargassum floating in waters as we sailed the Gulf of Mexico

[BarbinMich]

As the first link says, this seaweed is an important habitat for many sea creatures.  I've often seen it while sitting on the Promenade deck on sea days in the Atlantic only.  Detected no odor from it.  However, I think that only happens when it lays on a sandy beach and starts to deteriorate.

[shipshape sam]

10 minutes ago, BarbinMich said:

As the first link says, this seaweed is an important habitat for many sea creatures.  I've often seen it while sitting on the Promenade deck on sea days in the Atlantic only.  Detected no odor from it.  However, I think that only happens when it lays on a sandy beach and starts to deteriorate.

 

One of my cruise mates on recent cruise want mentioning the habitat.  It does start to stink once on beach for a while. 🙂

[mahdnc]

Jan 16 2019, Reflection, seaweed off the port bow!  The southwest coast of Haiti is just visible on the horizon to the right.

Edited May 11, 2019 by mahdnc

[Fogfog]

This seaweed was seen regularly across the Atl on our recent TA

 

It is fascinating to see the circular blooms

[Germancruiser]

I also saw the kind of seagras during the crossing two weeks ago!

[jamacka]

The Sargasso Sea is a place in the Atlantic where the sea currents go around it, creating a sort of eddy.  It's like the Hotel California of the ocean, things check in but they don't often leave.  Usually things get trapped in the Sargasso Sea.. so there's an abundance of seaweed and often trash as well there.   Likely the reason this stuff is showing up on beaches here and there, is because of a storm which blew it out of the confines of the Sargasso Sea and pushed it into one of the passing currents.

Or, the currents are getting all fibbered-up because of climate change and the Sargasso Sea is breaking apart. (probably not that... yet)

[cricketgirl]

This unfortunately is not a new problem and has been continually worsening over the last 8 years.  Quite an issue for Mexico's tourism industry, and for other Caribbean islands with east facing beaches.  Hoping this subsides but unfortunately most experts seem to think this is the "new normal".  Terribly sad.

[clskinsfan]

12 minutes ago, cricketgirl said:

This unfortunately is not a new problem and has been continually worsening over the last 8 years.  Quite an issue for Mexico's tourism industry, and for other Caribbean islands with east facing beaches.  Hoping this subsides but unfortunately most experts seem to think this is the "new normal".  Terribly sad.

 

This has been going on forever. I remember algae blooms in the 70's and 80's. It is not a new issue. Here is a site that tracks Sargasum blooms in the Caribbean. It has some great beach cams as well.

 

http://seas-forecast.com/

Edited May 29, 2019 by clskinsfan

[Ginnyfyr]

Friends of mine cruised out of FLL a few weeks ago and told me the entire beach along the boardwalk was covered in the stuff as far as the eye could see. Locals told them not to even try walking through it because there could be jellyfish hiding in there. They said it was an absolutely gorgeous day and there were less than 10 people in the water due to so much of this seaweed washing up.