March 27, 2023 — A huge belt of sargassum, a seaweed that originates in the Sargasso Sea, is anticipated to wash up on shores in Florida, states bordering the Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean islands this summer.
A report by the University of South Florida’s Optical Oceanography Lab determined that more than 24 million metric tons of sargassum has collected in the Atlantic as of June 2022, one of the largest amounts in history. USA today reports visitors to Florida, Caribbean, and the Gulf of Mexico might encounter the sargassum as massive amounts of smelly, brown seaweed washed ashore.