WHERE IS THE SARGASSO SEA? The Sargasso Sea is a long-ago
named region within the mid- Atlantic Ocean nearer North America than Europe. It covers a whopping 1.4 million square miles and is known for exceptionally clear water with sub- surface visibility approaching 200 feet. Not specifically by its current name, the area was mentioned as being covered in seaweed in a 4th cen- tury poem penned by author Rufus Festus Avienus. Christopher Columbus is credited
as being the first seafarer actually to cross directly through that zone, and his logs note vast mats of seaweed there; the records of slightly earlier Portu guese explorations near the region make similar references.
IF YOU HOLD YOUR NOSE… The brown algae we commonly
call Sargassum weed is a prolific reproducer of itself. Similar to fresh- water’s hydrilla and Giant salvinia, Sargassum weed can regenerate from its own fragments. Break or cut one piece into two, and those parts become two healthy plants. Chop up an acre of
The downside to piles of dead
Sargassum weed is its sight and stink. No Chamber of Commerce wants those on its beaches. On the plus side, where it is
allowed to decay naturally or is moved strategically, so much dried
the stuff, and it might become 10 acres of floating, vital, life-supporting vege- tation, adrift on the currents and headed nowhere in particular. Its death usually occurs at the high
tide line, after the water has receded and sunlight has sucked the moisture and life from its branches. The weed, along with all the marine life it sup- ported, becomes a baking, putrid mass.
plant matter along the tide line cre- ates a firm structure around which sand dunes can be formed to thwart beach erosion.
FAMILY PROJECT If you’re looking to educate yourself
and your children on the marine food chain this summer, bring an empty buck- etor ice chest to the coast on a day when the surf is thick with Sargussum weed. Fill that container with clean Gulf
water, and place it on solid sand. Retrieve a generous handful of the weed — the live stuff in the water, not the rot- ting mess on the beach — and shake it vigorously over that bucket or chest.
Chances are good that a variety of
animals, most likely shorter than a half inch, will hit the water. Tiny shrimp and crabs are fairly common. If you’re lucky, you may get a little seahorse. Observe them for a minute or two, then set them free.
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