Scientists say they spotted more than 13 million tons of Sargassum, a yellowish-brown seaweed, drifting in the Atlantic Ocean last month — a record for the month of March.
NORTH AMERICA March 2023 Atlantic Ocean The Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt grew to an estimated 13.5 million metric tons of seaweed this spring.
Tangles of the goopy, leafy seaweed have already begun to wash ashore beaches in southern Florida and Mexico.
Floating mats of seaweed accumulate in the central Atlantic Ocean for much of the year.
But during the spring and summer, patches of it are carried by ocean currents toward the Caribbean, eastern Florida and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast.