It’s about Atlantic Sargassum Beltwho travels all year round, from West Africa to the Gulf of Mexico, and who has grown more than ever.
This year it is about 8,800 kilometers (over 5,000 miles) long and weighs 10 million tons.
The mass of the sargassum is so great that the entire belt can only be seen from space.
“Almost every year we see a bloom that It’s not like anything we’ve seen before because it’s getting bigger and bigger.Brian Barnes from the University of South Florida (USA) spoke about this in an interview with the BBC.
According to the Optical Oceanography Laboratory at the University of South Florida, Sargassum is “a brown macroalgae that floats on the surface of the ocean.”
However, it’s not a “solid mass,” Barnes explains. The smallest patch of sargassum visible on satellite imagery is the size of a football field, although the largest can be as large as 2.5 square kilometers.
In Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula, home to Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Tulum, among other tourist sites, only four of 80 beaches were without Sargassum this Thursday, according to Quintana Roo’s Sargassum Monitoring Network, although only 12 had “excessive ” quantity.
“We saw increase in the number (Sargasso) in the first half of March. Most layers of Sargassum still enter the Caribbean Sea from the east and continue to move west, reaching the Mexican Yucatan coast. In general, some Caribbean beaches have received and will continue to receive varying amounts of sargassum, but not all beaches will see it“Explained Chuanmin Hu, a professor at the University of South Florida.
“It is to be expected that Sargassum exposureAnd the eastern part of the Yucatan Peninsula (both Belize and Mexico) and the beaches of the Greater and Lesser Antilles. The size and frequency of Sargassum swarms along coasts could increase in the coming months,” Barnes added.
Sargassum is an important habitat for marine life, but after 48 hours ashore, the algae begin to release toxins such as hydrogen sulfide, which smells like rotten eggs in small amounts.
From an ecological standpoint, sargassum “could suffocate sea turtle nests on the beach” and release “plumes of dissolved organic matter that could impact coastal environments and their inhabitants,” Barnes said.
Worse than the smell, hydrogen sulfide can cause headaches, eye irritation, and stomach upset if present in large amounts, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The exact reason for the growth of the sargassum is still being studied.
Hu said the algae need “sufficient sunlight, warm water and sufficient nutrients from a variety of sources” to grow rapidly. He added that “the elongated belt is formed by ocean currents and surface winds.”
Barnes noted that one factor contributing to this could be the Amazon basin, where there is an increase in nitrogen, which then fertilizes the sargassum.
remember, that you can receive notifications from BBC Mundo. Download the new version of our app and activate them so you don’t miss out on our best content.
Source: La Opinion
Alfred Hart is an accomplished journalist known for his expert analysis and commentary on global affairs. He currently works as a writer at 24 news breaker, where he provides readers with in-depth coverage of the most pressing issues affecting the world today. With a keen insight and a deep understanding of international politics and economics, Alfred’s writing is a must-read for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the world we live in.