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US-ENVIRONMENT-OCEANS-SEAWEED
Beaches choked with stinky seaweed could be the new normal
MIAMI BEACH, United States, Aug 7, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Slimy, stinky brown
seaweed that ruins beachgoers’ vacations from Mexico to Florida may be the
new normal unless Brazil halts Amazon deforestation, experts say.
The culprit, called sargassum, turns clear-blue sea water a murky brown and
smells like rotten eggs when it washes ashore and starts to rot.
The seaweed is a natural occurrence on beaches in the Caribbean and
elsewhere. It’s part of an ecosystem for fish, crabs and birds.
But it has proliferated dramatically in recent years, covering shores with
thick layers of the weed and forcing tourism officials to clean it up so
visitors keep coming.
It is an icky nuisance for tourists and an economic and environmental
disaster.
“We came from over there, looking for a spot that is cleaner. But it is
this way everywhere,” said Maria Guadalupe Vazquez, 70, pointing off into the
horizon as she lounges in a beach chair in Miami Beach.
Authorities brought in trucks and front-loaders Friday to scoop the stuff
up and haul it away. They know this is no long-term solution, however.
One problem is global warming — the hotter the ocean, the more these weeds
reproduce, said Steve Leatherman, an environmental expert at Florida
International University.
But the bigger problem is the Amazon river, he added.
Scientists say that starting around 2011, much more land along that mighty
waterway was cleared for farming.
But it yields a poor, muddy red soil so farmers use a lot of fertilizer,
which rains wash into the river, where it flows into the Atlantic. And the
fertilizer ends up fertilizing the sargassum.
“Now there’s 20, or 30, 50 times more, 100 times more than we’ve ever had
before,” said Leatherman.
“We think this is going to be the new normal so we are going to have to
find a way to deal with this, and it’s going to be difficult,” said
Leatherman, aka Dr. Beach, as he drove by piles of sargassum on Miami Beach.
– ‘Environmental disaster’ –
The stuff is nothing new. When Christopher Columbus saw a bloom of
sargassum to the east of the Bahamas, it was so thick he thought it was an
island.
That was out at sea, however.
“What happens out in the Atlantic Ocean, it’s fine. But now this is an
economic and environmental disaster,” said Leatherman.
The pernicious effects are many: fishing boats have trouble starting their
engines. Beaches are disgusting for tourists. Fish choke because the seaweed
absorbs too much oxygen. Turtles struggle to find a place to lay eggs. When
they do, the babies cannot make it from the shore out to sea. And dead
seaweed sinks, smothering coral reefs.
No one has calculated how much damage is being done to countries’ fishing
and tourism industries.
In the British Virgin Islands, the layer of seaweed is seven feet (two
meters) thick. Punta Cana, a beach in the Dominican Republic that is famous
for its clear water, has turned brown. Barbados recently declared a national
emergency. Mexico has called in the navy to restore the beauty of tourist hub
Cancun.
“I don’t know what’s going on but it’s really not a good sight to see, you
know what I’m saying? We’re tourists,” said Sed Walker, 48, who was visiting
from Los Angeles.
A study published in July by the University of South Florida in the journal
Science concluded that the seaweed problem, which started in 2001 and showed
peaks in 2015 and 2018, is here to stay.
Satellite imagery shows blooms of sargassum form at the mouth of the
Amazon. From there it spreads across the Atlantic, from the Caribbean and the
Gulf of Mexico to Africa.
Scientists named it the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt (GASB). In 2015 and
2018, it stretched over nearly 5,592 miles. In June of last year, its biomass
exceeded 20 million tons.
The study blamed the sargassum explosion on discharges of fertilizer in the
Amazon and natural nutrients along the coast of Africa.
“A critical question is whether we have reached the point where recurrent
GASB and beaching events may become the new norm,” wrote Chuanmin Hu, the
lead author of the study and a professor of optical oceanography at the
university.
“Under continued nutrient enrichment due to deforestation and fertilizer
use in agriculture,” Hu wrote, “the answer is likely positive.”
BSS/AFP/GMR/0916 hrs