Massive Sargassum Seaweed Invasion In The Florida Keys Covers Beaches

[@SubsurfaceMedia]

These sargassum patches are actually beneficial nurseries for juvenile fish and loggerhead turtles when floating offshore, as well as where you find the best mahi mahi fishing. The problem is humans don't like it rotting on the beaches.

[@CapybaraCM]

Problem is that impedes the baby turtles from reaching the water in the first place. And if it’s cleaned up, either the humans or heavy equipment crush the turtle shells while still in nest

[@Hilhub]

@@CapybaraCM everything happens for a reason, I’m convinced - even the stuff that seems to mess things up. Nothing is permanent, especially the seaweed. The toughest baby turtles will succeed.

[@ndzapruder]

@HiHubbell "The problem is always humans" Thanks for reminding me that coexistence with you is off the table.

[@Hilhub]

@@ndzapruder I coexist quite well with nature and wildlife.

[@maryjarzembowski7862]

You do realize this is algae right?

[@Ynlegend927]

They made this like we were being invaded by Russia or something 😄

[@paulgroth3345]

Rake it up and compost it. It makes wonderful fertilizer. Which the poor soil in the keys would be greatly improved by the use of this seaweed.

[@briley2177]

For non-food plan life, maybe but even that’s more accurately a “not-necessarily.” In studies, the high levels of heavy metals have resulted in as much as 37 times more arsenic in bok choi and 21 times more arsenic in zucchini when sargassum is part of the compost. It increases the arsenic content of the soil alone by nearly fifteen times the levels of untreated soil. And just because we don’t eat certain plants, that doesn’t mean that other life isn’t eating it and that we wouldn’t alter natural balances by introducing extra arsenic to the land biome. Composting sargassum isn’t an easy solution to this problem.

[@paulgroth3345]

Thank you very much I stand corrected. I live in the Pacific Northwest and most of the seaweed we use is bull kelp or sea lettuce both of which work very well and have been used since before the arrival of Europeans in this part of the world.

[@briley2177]

@@paulgroth3345 Ah! Yes, the “stuff out west” makes for much better compost. Just nature being nature. They are working on some strategies to use sargassum in textile manufacturing (but even that has to be for industrial uses because silly people put non-food things in their mouths even when you warn them not to do so). The most interesting thing I’ve seen is a plan to “harvest” the sargassum at sea, sink it, and “lock” the carbon at the bottom of the ocean. I’m sure this too has undesirable consequences, but I haven’t yet inquired as deeply as I should - so please take that with an appropriate amount of salt.

[@paulgroth3345]

A pinch of salt. The last ingredient and the old recipe for the universal antidote for poisonings

[@StopListenThink]

Cleanup on aisle five

[@StormChasingVideo]

LOL more like Clean Up on Highway 1

[@StopListenThink]

@@StormChasingVideo 😆😝

[@andyscott6648]

Yep. Happens every year.

[@JeffMarshall-br9cz]

Where's the M'frs that know how to make fuel out of this oh now I remember they have all been murdered

[@rridderbusch518]

I hope this doesn't harm birds migrating north, or sea turtles hatching. I heard that is gives off sulfur fumes.

[@StormChasingVideo]

Great, sulfur fumes just in time for Easter Sunday.

[@JRoge2024]

Hahaha you made me laugh there

[@JeffMarshall-br9cz]

A couple years ago they said they can make fuel out of this

[@petermiller4953]

Hop to it then! Not you; the scientists

[@Chris6134]

In that case what you do is go home, wait till the seaweed is gone, then go swimming again.

[@CondorWare]

Maybe DeSantis can send it up to Nantuckett?

[@deannebauer7660]

Or donate it to New College of Florida, as he has ruined that once wonderful institution.😢

[@jeannetteshields4042]

Can the state haul the seaweed to land that needs extra nutrients?

[@Dman9fp]

I heard somewhere they believe it has too much residual arsenic to really do anything with it

[@Trtevoorryu]

My county is planning on burying it in the dunes to help vegetation grow if it hits our area

[@alancrawford430]

Covering the beaches ? Seems normal , like this every year

[@orenesimmons5514]

You were warned it was coming. Time to find a solution to cleaning it up.

[@briley2177]

It’s a cost intensive process. They’re working on manufacturing processes to re-use the sargassum in textiles. You can’t compost it because it contains high levels of arsenic and cadmium that’s released into the soil as it breaks down and results in markedly higher levels of heavy metals in the resultant crops. And of course, just moving it requires a lot of man-power as well as equipment. Plus, it just keeps accumulating, so clean-up is an everyday for months kinda thing.

[@yaaxiik]

♻️🌎

[@ryanbunke5827]

We need to find a way to prevent this from becoming to excessive and maybe try to prevent it from making it ashore in such large quantities

[@ablewindsor1459]

Up to a thousand miles wide mass moving shoreward.......all the oil skimming ships on the Planet would not even Start a clean up 😮 But it is capturing an giant amount of Carbon from the atmosphere most sinking to the deep bottom.

[@ilthamcaidor6177]

What are you talking about ,how' are you going to prevent it from happening? They come from the West cost of africa looking for asylum in the USA.. people are mining on the sea floor that's why it happens . These things have never happened 10 years ago okay.they are being forcefully removed from the sea bed now give them a place to stay

[@andyscott6648]

Why?

[@danielmulcahi6327]

Everyone's making a big deal out of this it happens every year. No biggie.

[@maryjarzembowski7862]

This is algae! If the people in florida would just stop fertilizing their yards we wouldn't have such a problem. Everyone wants green beautiful grass ! It's ridiculous and ruining our state

[@kellypond9377]

I have read the excess fertilizer flows out of the Amazon River basin, massive amounts of fertilizer used in farming and ranching in Brazil. I'm sure there's also lots of Florida farm and ranch seepage too, but the bulk comes from the south.

[@hunnybunny814]

Must be "God" punishing desantis and his authoritarianism. 😅

[@Dman9fp]

Don't need an invisible man in the sky. Mother nature / gaia/ whatever you wanna call it, deals out inevitable natural consequences for our collective actions/ inactions. Climate change making more sea level rise, droughts/ floods, bad hurricanes, I've heard increasingly massive sargassm is largely due to the deforestation/ nutrient loads from agriculture coming from the Amazon river basin. Yes it's all connected, to some degree, just as the dust from the Sahara desert reaches Florida/ hurricanes form over there.... not saying it's always just or fair, random freak natural disasters happen all the time, but they do seem to be increasing in frequency and intensity due to thinking we are above nature. And altering it/ huge industries in power turning a blind eye for short term greed But mankind will continue the folly of believing nature was always evil/ the taker and never the giver. Taking our own accomplishments and roots/ origin from nature for granted. Humankind won't last more than a couple or few hundred years tops. And I think even that optimism may be a stretch

[@JeffMarshall-br9cz]

Where's the M'frs that know how to make fuel out of this oh now I remember they have all been murdered