Atlantic Sargassum Belt Reaches 37.5 Million Tons Across 5,000 Miles as Pollution Fuels Growth
Updated
Updated · AS USA · Aug 16
Atlantic Sargassum Belt Reaches 37.5 Million Tons Across 5,000 Miles as Pollution Fuels Growth
3 articles · Updated · AS USA · Aug 16
Summary
Scientists detected 37.5 million tons of sargassum in May in a 5,000-mile belt stretching from West Africa to the Gulf of Mexico, marking a vast expansion beyond the Sargasso Sea.
A Science review links that growth to land-based nutrient loading—especially agricultural runoff, wastewater discharge and atmospheric deposition—along with ocean circulation that carries algae from nutrient-rich coastal waters into the open Atlantic.
Researchers say the belt has developed over four decades and became an almost annual event after a massive bloom was first identified in 2011; early nutrients largely came from the Amazon River.
Alongshore, the seaweed can foul beaches, release toxic hydrogen sulfide as it decomposes, damage reefs and fisheries, and force costly cleanups; one Gulf Coast surge even contributed to a Florida nuclear plant shutdown in 1991.
The findings frame the bloom as a basin-wide pollution and coastal-economy problem, not just an offshore ecological phenomenon, with tourism-dependent communities facing the heaviest strain.