Marine science experts warned beachgoers to watch where they step this weekend after sargassum seaweed washed up on South Florida’s coastlines.
7News captures captured the smelly algae on Miami Beach on Friday.
“Yeah, it makes me really itchy. I don’t like it, and I think they should get rid of it,” said a beachgoer.
“A heavy odor, yes. It’s a smell that you can really, you know, feel it,” said beachgoer Juan Merulanda.
The seaweed was also spotted floating in Hollywood and Sunny Isles Beach
Back on Miami Beach, the brown, nasty sargassum has kept many people out of the water.
“The water is still pretty murky,” said a beachgoer. “I’m disappointed that there’s a lot of seaweed here.”
But a young swimmer who identified himself as Oliver was brave enough to take a dip.
“I didn’t really mind, but now it looks bad,” he said.
Other Miami Beach beachgoers said they are familiar with the seaweed invasion, and they don’t like it.
“I feel like it has gotten worse in the past few months,” said a beachgoer.
“I believe it’s every year that it happens, so I think you know, with nature, you don’t know what to do. but [the city] can probably do something about it,” said.
The seaweed washing up on the beach doesn’t just make it uncomfortable. Dr. Brian Barnes, a marine science expert at the University of South Florida, said it can affect beaches
If there is a large amount of sargassum on the sand, Barnes said, it can release a gas that could be poisonous.
“Especially if a large aggregation comes ashore, piles up, it starts to decompose, it smells,” he said. “It’s a like a rotten egg smell, it’s not pleasant, and some people do have a respiratory sensitivity to it.”
There is a small patch of sargassum in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, called the sargasso sea. High pressure takes a lot of this seaweed and pushes it into the Caribbean Sea and eventually across the gulf’s waters.
The gulfstream current grabs the brown seaweed and moves it across the Florida Straits. Strong onshore winds helps push the sargassum right across the beaches.
While there are no health issues associated with the algae, medical experts say tiny organisms living in it can cause skin rashes.
Nevertheless, this sargassum provides shelter for many marine species, including turtles. It also helps with beach restoration, especially after a hurricane or tropical storm, providing nutrients to the shoreline.
Many municipalities have programs that remove the seaweed from beaches.