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5000 mile long Sargassum Bloom

Discussion in 'Too Hot for Swamp Gas' started by G8trGr8t, Mar 12, 2023.

  1. G8trGr8t

    G8trGr8t Premium Member

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    Record sargassum bloom set to degrade beaches. not good unless they can figure out a way to harvest and repurpose it.

    will the record size bloom generate habitat and large population of bait fish that would generate large population of predators like mahi that thrive on the baitfish from the weedline? record mahi season?

    A 5,000-mile blanket of seaweed that can be seen from space is threatens the beaches of Florida (msn.com)

    While the consequences of the Sargassum Belt have concerned scientists for the past decade, experts say this year's bloom is particularly alarming, according to reporting by Denise Chow for NBC News published Saturday.

    "It's incredible," Brian LaPointe, a research professor at Florida Atlantic University's Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, told NBC News. "What we're seeing in the satellite imagery does not bode well for a clean beach year."

    LaPointe, who has studied sargassum for four decades, told the news outlet that beaches in Key West are already being covered with the algae, despite the piles usually washing ashore in May. Beaches in Mexico — like in Cancun, Playa del Carmen, and Tulum — are also preparing for a large build-up of sargassum this week.

    The size of the mass of seaweed is growing each year — with 2018 and 2022 having record-breaking increases, Brian Barnes, an assistant research professor at the University of South Florida's College of Marine Science, told NBC News. This year is approaching these records, he said.
     
  2. GatorNorth

    GatorNorth Premium Member Premium Member

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    Tell the governor it’s a non-binary bloom and it will be gone by week’s end.
     
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  3. ursidman

    ursidman VIP Member

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    • Informative Informative x 1
  4. oragator1

    oragator1 Hurricane Hunter Premium Member

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  5. ursidman

    ursidman VIP Member

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  6. sierragator

    sierragator GC Hall of Fame

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    Is it orange? asking for a friend.
     
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  7. gator_lawyer

    gator_lawyer VIP Member

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    Blame Joe Biden's open borders for allowing the woke blob to invade Florida sovereignty, and DeSantis will personally dispatch the Florida National Guard to deport the seaweed to Massachusetts.
     
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  8. demosthenes

    demosthenes Premium Member

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    Ugh. Heading to Cancun the last week of the month. I’ve dealt with lots of seaweed in the Dominican Republic and it’s not enjoyable.
     
  9. 96Gatorcise

    96Gatorcise Hurricane Hunter

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    It's edible, so harvest it and sell it. It has uses in medicine and livestock feed.
     
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  10. danmanne65

    danmanne65 GC Hall of Fame

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    Does it reduce cow emissions? I read somewhere that some seaweed did.
     
  11. gator7_5

    gator7_5 GC Hall of Fame

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    None of the articles I read give any timeline on when it may wash ashore. Odd.
     
  12. phatGator

    phatGator GC Hall of Fame

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    I was thinking the same thing. We even have seaweed shampoo.
     
  13. citygator

    citygator VIP Member

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    I thought this was a Trump thread.

    EDIT: Original title of dupe thread was Blob coming to Florida

    My post just looks stupid now. : (
     
    Last edited: Mar 15, 2023
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  14. uftaipan

    uftaipan GC Hall of Fame

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    Send in the manatees!
     
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  15. phatGator

    phatGator GC Hall of Fame

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    I guess this may hinder opportunities to scavenge or harvest all that seaweed:
    What is the Sargasso Sea?
     
  16. tripsright

    tripsright GC Legend

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    As a floating mass, yes. But, washed up on the beach, I think, likely negates a lot of the concerns over disrupting it’s impact on those ecosystems. Although, maybe it can’t be harvested for other applications after a certain level of environmental decay?
     
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  17. phatGator

    phatGator GC Hall of Fame

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    At least as biomass it could be collected and digested anaerobically to produce methane, and then the methane burned to produce electricity.
     
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  18. gatorpa

    gatorpa GC Hall of Fame

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    Other than perhaps beaches getting covered what’s the down side? A large sargassum bed helps all marine life.

    When we get strong easterly winds the beach gets covered up with it. It’s really not that big of a deal IMHO
     
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  19. exiledgator

    exiledgator Gruntled

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    Just because something is good, that doesn't mean more of it is better.

    From my limited understanding, location is also important here. A bloom at sea provides needed habitat. A bloom ashore chokes out near shore and intertidal ecosystems.

    An historically large and misplaced bloom seems quite capable of having negative impacts.
     
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