RNCollins
TUG Lifetime Member
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Sargassum seaweed / Image source: Mission Blue
Sargassum seaweed is a concern on some islands
https://www.travelweekly.com/Caribb...m-seaweed-a-concern-on-some-Caribbean-islands
By Gay Nagle Myers / Travel Weekly / July 3, 2018
“It’s back.
Sargassum seaweed is the unwelcome visitor that began washing up on beaches in parts of the Caribbean and Florida in late spring.
Sargassum made a brief appearance in the Caribbean in summer 2011 and had a massive comeback in the summer of 2015. Now, undulating rafts of the stinking slimy seaweed are turning Caribbean waters on some islands reddish-brown, swamping beaches and trapping sea turtles and marine life as it washes ashore on each tide.
In Barbados, the trickle actually started in January, but had ramped up dramatically by late May and early June.
The government declared a national emergency on June 7, after satellite observations warned of record-setting sargassum making its way to its shores on the east and south coasts, according the Barbados Government Information Service.
"This onslaught does pose a national emergency to our marine life, our beaches, our people and our fishing and tourism industries," said Kirk Humphrey, minister of maritime affairs.
"The government is doing what we can by raking the beaches daily, removing it, burying it, taking it to landfills, but more comes each day."
Humphrey said that researchers in Barbados are investigating the use of sargassum as a sustainable energy source and fertilizer....”