In Theweeds
Gulf coastal residents are hoping against a repeat invasion of Sargassum this summer.
T TIDE By Doug Pike
HIS PAST SUMMER’S TIDES may not have delivered the most and largest-ever blankets of Sargassum weed onto Gulf of Mexico beaches, but those deep, thick piles must have ranked
among the top dozen or so in recent history. Across some stretches of
the coast, stacks of the macroalgae stood as high as an elephant’s eye — and after a few days in the sun smelled not unlike the other end of the elephant. Swept our way by the Gulf Stream’s unceasing, warm current, mats of the golden-brown weed just kept coming…and coming, and coming. Along Texas’ upper-coast
beaches, my warm-weather stomping grounds, piles of the
Sargassum weed
traditionally originates in a place called the Sargasso Sea, which isn’t a sea at all but
instead just a swirling chunk of the mid- Atlantic Ocean.
stuff strung for miles in both directions and, in places, were 30 yards wide. It was a mess, a constant, vile mess. Hundreds of hours were invested, utilizing the heaviest loading machinery
PHOTO COURTESY OF GCRL
available, in efforts to clean popular beaches and salvage tourism dollars. Doze the beach, haul off the weed in a parade of dump trucks, then repeat after the next incoming tide. Noble as they were, those efforts often were futile and sometimes were abandoned. “Welcome to our beaches; we did
our best,” some coastal communities seemed to say. “Try to stay upwind of the seaweed, and whatever you do, don’t walk barefoot in it.”
LIFE ON THE OPEN SEA Sargassum weed traditionally origi-
nates in a place called the Sargasso Sea, which isn’t a sea at all but instead just a swirling chunk of the mid-Atlantic Ocean. (In various species, the algae is found across most of the world’s warm oceans and seas, and most varieties attach to rock or coral on the sea floor;
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what we see offshore and eventually on our beaches is a type that has adapted and ren- dered itself independent from any such “host” home.) Our seaweed has devel-
oped tiny, gas-filled “pods” that keep it afloat. Being at the surface provides a constant source of light, which enables photosynthesis and creates life-sustaining energy for the plant. Those long, leafy strands,
which don’t smell badly at all when they’re alive, support an incredible variety of sea crea- tures, some of which aren’t found anywhere else. A sam- pling conducted in Sargassum mats off the coast of North Carolina turned up 81 different species of marine life living in or near the algae. Tiny shrimp, crabs, fish, sea-
horses and other organisms thrive in the nutrient-rich environment. Their collective presence attracts slightly larger fish, like blue runners and jacks, which huddle just beneath the vegeta- tion, and they draw… Well, you know how the oceanic food chain works. The dolphins and mackerels and cobia and tunas and billfish caught around these floating oases aren’t there for the shade or the salad.
BRANCHING OUT The journeys of Sargassum weed’s
tiniest hitchhikers, it turns out, may not be as far as we think. Dr. Greg Stunz, at Texas A&M
University in Corpus Christi campus, said there’s growing evidence of a sus- tainable Sargassum weed population in the Gulf of Mexico. Rather than ride
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