sargassum weed invasion makes for fascinating snorkeling

[laurenceh]

we see it in varying degrees every year at the end of rainy season but this year the bay islands has experienced an amazing amount of sargassum weed being brought ashore this last few weeks (i flew from roatan to houston on saturday and it stretched pretty much unbroken all the way to the gulf of mexico).
utila and especially roatan have enormous amounts, from the air it looked like roatan has it going out 20-50 feet in almost all bays and coves around the island.
most tourists are horrified by it and won't enter the water (many won't even go on the beach), however divers and snorkelers are in for a treat. i spent several days snorkeling amongst it on utila's west side and around the cays last week and the life its supporting is amazing. expect to see enormous amounts of juvenile fish (especially file and triggers) and a lot of baby turtles living under the sargassum cover and deeper below lots of wahoo and other predators.
it may not look pretty but it was the most fascinating snorkeling i've ever done, anywhere.

 

[FishLovingStudent]

It is interesting isn't it? Despite being an invasive species that the government and conservationist groups are trying to eliminate, it is appearing to have a great positive impact on fauna diversity and numbers. I came across a paper about Sargassum having positive benefits on pipefish and seahorse while doing website work for a seahorse specialist group, and was quite surprised to say the least. Its not common to think of invasive species being a "good" thing.

 

[PeterNBiddle]

It is interesting isn't it? Despite being an invasive species that the government and conservationist groups are trying to eliminate, it is appearing to have a great positive impact on fauna diversity and numbers. I came across a paper about Sargassum having positive benefits on pipefish and seahorse while doing website work for a seahorse specialist group, and was quite surprised to say the least. Its not common to think of invasive species being a "good" thing.

Do you have a link to that paper?

 

[jodylynn007]

I am heading to Roatan in less than two weeks, I will be packing a snorkel for the first time ever - thanks for posting LaurencH!!

 

[FishLovingStudent]

Do you have a link to that paper?

http://www.int-res.com/articles/ab2008/3/b003p011.pdf

 

[chillyinCanada]

I didn't realize it was an invasive species. I'd understood that weather and current conditions had helped more of it break away than usual and that's what is causing the heavy concentrations in places where it generally isn't that heavy.

 

[Doc]

....most tourists are horrified by it and won't enter the water (many won't even go on the beach)....

That is the pervasive sentiment on Twit Advisor. It is telling how there's such a distinction between SB divers who want to understand and explore the environment, especially as it is evolving (and just being different), versus the audience who... well, that's Twit Advisor.

Of course, even here at ScubaBored, we did have a momentary flurry of falling sky posts during the earthquake a few years back.

Enjoy the sea weed, post pics. I'm going after some in May.

 

[drbill]

http://www.int-res.com/articles/ab2008/3/b003p011.pdf

I'm confused... that article refers to Sargassum muticum, an Asian species which has invaded a number of new regions (including the West Coast of North America). I assumed the OP was referring to Sargassum natans and Sargassum fluitans which are the primary components of the Sargasso Sea in the Atlantic.

Here on Catalina (and much of SoCal) we are faced with an explosive invasion of another species, Sargassum horneri.

 

[Allison Finch]

I LOVE poking through the sargassum. I am on the lookout for the sargassum frogfish that never ceases to entertain.

---------- Post added February 10th, 2015 at 11:45 AM ----------

 

[agilis]

I LOVE poking through the sargassum. I am on the lookout for the sargassum frogfish that never ceases to entertain.

---------- Post added February 10th, 2015 at 11:45 AM ----------

One of the great things about North Carolina diving are the rafts of sargassum. In NJ we seldom see large rafts of it less than 50 miles out at sea. On the rare occasions that contiguous quantities drift close to shore I spend as much time in them as possible before wave action destroys them. Amazing things can be found. Not only the sargassum frogfish, but also sargassum filefish, sargassum seahorses, sargassum pipefish, many tiny Dolphin juveniles, small sea turtles, amazing invertebrates of every kind, masses of juvenile tropicals, and (twice, for me) Sailfish only inches long. I'm hoping to someday find a small juvenile ocean sunfish, which at only a couple of inches long looks like a bizarrely distorted spiny boxfish (to which they are distantly related).