The Caribbean Sea has started to get covered in algae – Harbors are getting clogged and Beaches are full of smelly slime

A strip of kelp on a beach in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
Seaweed accumulated on the beach of Playa del Carmen in Mexico.

Seaweed is an important part of marine life. However, the amount of algae has increased drastically for more than ten years.

The island nations of the Caribbean Sea and Florida in the US are suffering from a rapidly worsening algae problem. It is caused by the sargassum normally present in the Sargasso Sea, the amount of which has increased rapidly in recent years.

Algae is a very important part of Sarkassomere’s biological community. The area has become accustomed to the regularly appearing algae. Algae has always pushed with the waves onto beaches and harbors.

Development of Sargasso Sea algae growth on the map 2015-2018
The increase in the amount of algae until 2018.

The amount of algae has been increasing at least since 2011. Now there has been so much algae that it is causing real problems on the coasts. For example, on the island of Guadeloupe, it has filled an entire sea bay.

– The beaches are narrow and not very wide. That \\algae\\ just covers them. In Cancún a couple of years ago, it was so bad that the Navy sent 2,000 people with brooms and other tools to clean it up to expose the sand, says producer Leatherman.

Seaweed is collected from a beach in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
Algae is collected from a beach in Mexico.

Brazil’s rainforests are being cut down and replaced by crops or established meat farms. Large amounts of nutrients flow from the farms into the river and through it into the Atlantic. A similar thing happens on the opposite bank of the Atlantic on the Congo River. Ocean currents collect nutrients for algae food in the Caribbean.