South Florida braces for the incoming wave of seaweed (includes video story)

This Spring break, South Florida shores have been covered in heaps of sargassum, or brown, tangled masses of seaweed.

It’s smelly, unpleasant and washes up in large quantities on coastlines.

The dense seaweed sargassum is moving in earlier than normal, and this year’s bloom is enormous, claims Dr. Brian LaPointe, a researcher at Florida Atlantic University.

“It wasn’t until 2011 that we began to see this unusual bloom develop in the central tropical Atlantic Ocean,” says LaPointe. 

Experts warn that the enormous quantity could have negative environmental effects if it does reach our beaches.

Alexa Velez

Alexa Velez is a senior at FIU majoring in broadcast media with a concentration in English. She has written for PantherNOW and Caplin News and is a recipient of the NBCU Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Scholarship. She completed her first internship on a national radio station, SLAM! Radio on Sirius XM 145, during the summer. She aims to network with others within the field and continue gaining experience in an effort to grow professionally and perfect her craft as a journalist.