Biggest ever seaweed bloom stretches from Gulf of Mexico to Africa

A vast expanse of brown seaweed stretching across the Atlantic is a threat to tourism but a boon to marine life, US researchers have said.
A report by the University of South Florida, published on Thursday, showed satellite images of the biggest ever bloom of the sargassum seaweed, which last year extended from the US and Mexico's Atlantic coast to Africa.
The report, published in Science magazine, estimated that the giant patch grew to 8,850 kilometers (5,500 miles) wide and weighed 20 million tons.
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Researchers found that sargassum, which was previously contained to the Gulf of Mexico and the Sargasso Sea, has spread to the central Atlantic Ocean over the past decade.
They said that some beaches in Florida and Mexico now have had so much sargassum that at times, swimmers are prevented from entering the sea.
Potential tourism crisis
The increase in the stinking mounds of rotting seaweed at the waterline has led to an increase in complaints from tourists and sullied the reputation of many paradise resorts.
Researchers said that 2019 looks set for another record year of seaweed growth and that the phenomenon could become the new normal.
"The oceans are connected across the regions and we are going to see more sargassum coming to the Florida coast," researcher Mengqiu Wang said. "It is not fatal, it is not poisoning tides; it is more of a public nuisance and can cause some public health concerns."
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The Sargassum Monitoring website recently tweeted a map of the worst affected areas, so far, this year.