Sargasso.

[Dave Dillehay]

Good Lord No, that was several years ago, and by far the worst ever seen in Cozumel. It resulted from a very unusual strong west wind that persisted for a whole week. I forget the time of year, but that shows a good reason to visit Cozumel rather than Playa Del Carmen! Stinks like heck but I hear it makes good fertilizer.

I hope this is not unduly alarming as a west wind is VERY rare here. I just wanted to show you what the Eastside of Cozumel may look like at times, and the mainland experiences to some extent nearly all the time.

And by the way, when the wind shifted east all that stuff blew over to Cancun where it belonged!

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

PS for the event time frame, you can see the new stupid little docks being built…I don't remember what year.

 

[El Graduado]

The sargasso that is piling up in Cozumel is not coming from the Sargasso Sea in the mid Atlantic. It is a different species that has formed large mats farther south off the eastern coast of Brazil. It looks like this new source of sargasso will be supplying Cozumel with an unwanted supply of this noxious seaweed now on. This seems like the new normal. It could be that nutrients in the runoff from agricultural and clear-cutting activity in Brazil flowing down the Amazon to the sea are a contributing factor, but marine scientists haven't confirmed that as of yet. The sargasso from the northern Sargasso Sea only hit Cozumel every few years or so when the winds off Africa moved a little south and tore off some of the mat where it entered the gyre current, carrying it in the loop passing by Cozumel. This new mat to the south looks like it will be a year-round phenomenon, with heavier amounts being carried north on the gyre during the warmer months and less in the cooler months.

 

[Dave Dillehay]

Wow…Thanks for the clarification. So it's a new Sargassum Sea to the south, huh? Sounds bad since I was hoping for a seasonal/periodic variation of the North Atlantic gyre. For others, please keep in mind that it is a problem for Cozumel only with the infrequent west wind.

Thanks Ric

Dave

PS As long as you are not on the beach, even the East Side Diving is still great.

 

[Snoweman]

I posted this in another thread. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/06/mysterious-masses-seaweed-assault-caribbean-islands

 

[chillyinCanada]

National Geographic has a different explanation

Life in the North Atlantic depends on this floating seaweed

Either way, it's a helluva mess and going to really screw up tourism

 

[ggunn]

At the same time as I was on Cozumel in the first couple of weeks of May, some friends were on Isla Mujeres. When we all got back home and were comparing experiences, I commented on all the sargassum on the east facing beaches. I got blank stares. Weirdly enough, as of May 10 or so, Isla had so far been completely spared.

 

[ggunn]

Tagging on to this thread because I'm curious as well.

We just came back from a week long trip (Mid May) and from Punta Sur to most of the East side it was piled up one the beach. The smell was bad enough from the road we didn't even think of stopping. We like Chen Rio's, Coconuts, and wanted to stop at Punta Moreno, but were unwilling to stop at any of them due to the smell.

I was there at the same time. The smell was indeed bad at Chen Rio, but at Coconuts, Punta Morena, Mescalito's, and Bob's Marley Bar, it ranged from hardly noticeable to undetectable.

 

[chillyinCanada]

This article doesn't credit the sargasso coming from Brazil.

Life in the North Atlantic depends on this floating seaweed

 

[El Graduado]

This article doesn't credit the sargasso coming from Brazil.

Life in the North Atlantic depends on this floating seaweed

Actually, most of this article you ;ink to is about the area known as the Sargasso Sea. Farther down in the articles it mentions “..the weeds explosions in the Gulf, the Caribbean, Brazil, and even Africa…”

Even farther down, it says “No one knows why these blooms happen. Lapointe thinks climate change may be altering ocean currents, carrying sargassum to places it’s rarely been seen – from West Africa to the northern coast of Brazil. Another hypothesis is that phosphorus rich, windblown dust from the Sahara that used to be blown across the Atlantic is now settling out to sea, triggering offshore blooms.”

In the Nippon Foundation’s Nereus Program’s March 7, 2019 article on Ecology/Oceanography/Extreme Events, by Nereus Research Associate Colette Wabnitz with Jimena Eyzaguirre and Ravidya Burrowes (ESSA Technologies Ltd), the authors state:

“Recent evidence indicates the algae did not drift in from the Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic as was first put forward, but instead originates from the equatorial Atlantic. Sargassum are a common feature in the Sargasso Sea and therefore the area has always been considered as the principal source of the seaweed. However, satellite imagery and ocean current information point to the North Equatorial Recirculation Region as the origin of recent mass blooms – north of the mouth of the Amazon, between Brazil and West Africa, in an area not previously associated with Sargassum growth.” It further states that the sargassum coming up from the south is Sargassum natans I, and the species of Sargassum in the Sargasso Sea is S. natans VIII.

The Sargassum Mass-Bloom of 2018 - Nereus Program - The Nippon Foundation

As an aside, I quit relying on National Geographic Magazine for accurate information many years ago. The National Geographic Research Foundation’s publications are usually reliable, but the Nat Geo magazine… not so much.

 

[El Graduado]

National Geographic has a different explanation

Life in the North Atlantic depends on this floating seaweed

Actually, most of this Nat Geo article is about the area known as the Sargasso Sea. Farther down in the articles it mentions “..the weeds explosions in the Gulf, the Caribbean, Brazil, and even Africa…”

Even farther down, it says “No one knows why these blooms happen. Lapointe thinks climate change may be altering ocean currents, carrying sargassum to places it’s rarely been seen – from West Africa to the northern coast of Brazil. Another hypothesis is that phosphorus rich, windblown dust from the Sahara that used to be blown across the Atlantic is now settling out to sea, triggering offshore blooms.”

In the Nippon Foundation’s Nereus Program’s March 7, 2019 article on Ecology/Oceanography/Extreme Events, by Nereus Research Associate Colette Wabnitz with Jimena Eyzaguirre and Ravidya Burrowes (ESSA Technologies Ltd), the authors state:

“Recent evidence indicates the algae did not drift in from the Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic as was first put forward, but instead originates from the equatorial Atlantic. Sargassum are a common feature in the Sargasso Sea and therefore the area has always been considered as the principal source of the seaweed. However, satellite imagery and ocean current information point to the North Equatorial Recirculation Region as the origin of recent mass blooms – north of the mouth of the Amazon, between Brazil and West Africa, in an area not previously associated with Sargassum growth.” It further states that the sargassum coming up from the south is Sargassum natans I, and the species of Sargassum in the Sargasso Sea is S. natans VIII.

The Sargassum Mass-Bloom of 2018 - Nereus Program - The Nippon Foundation

As an aside, I quit relying on National Geographic Magazine for accurate information many years ago. The National Geographic Research Foundation’s publications are usually reliable, but the Nat Geo magazine… not so much.