Sargasso weed.

[capnsensible]

I thought this was confined to the part of the Atlantic that we call the Sargasso Sea. But it's everywhere now. I've seen it more and more widespread on Atlantic sailing over the last few trips, from none at all on my first in 2000. Now it's a blight. I didn't think it was sargasso weed but now I'm enlightened. I've even seen masses of it from an airliner. At least people are now figuring out how to turn it into a useful harvest.

One of a zillion on line articles:

Huge masses of foul-smelling seaweed in the Caribbean could cause headaches for sun-seekers

 

[Kelpie]

It's bad. It's even making its way round to the west side of the islands. Makes it almost impossible to fish, perhaps that will turn out to be a silver lining.

 

[capnsensible]

It's bad. It's even making its way round to the west side of the islands. Makes it almost impossible to fish, perhaps that will turn out to be a silver lining.

Unless, I suppose, your job/ livelihood is fisherman....

 

[Adios]

Unless, I suppose, your job/ livelihood is fisherman....

until next years bumper crop

 

[capnsensible]

'Don't worry kids, we will be able to eat/pay the bills/have shoes next year.'

 

[Kelpie]

Unless, I suppose, your job/ livelihood is fisherman....

I presume it won't affect the guys using pots, not sure about everyone else.
Certainly makes trolling off the back of a yacht pretty much impossible.

 

[geem]

In Antigua today its bad. Been out kitesurfing and wow! There is a lot of weed. I hit a patch and crashed. Came up looking like I had been buried in a compost heap for a month

 

[veshengro]

I'm not sure if the same applies to the weed when it's close inshore, but just out of curiosity, I hauled some aboard with the Boat Hook when deep Ocean. There must have been 100 tiny Crabs and countless wriggly things which promptly leapt out of the weed and went galloping about my foredeck.

 

[Adios]

I'm not sure if the same applies to the weed when it's close inshore, but just out of curiosity, I hauled some aboard with the Boat Hook when deep Ocean. There must have been 100 tiny Crabs and countless wriggly things which promptly leapt out of the weed and went galloping about my foredeck.

yes its a breeding ground transporting biodiversity from place to place. Full of nutrients. Good thing. Normal part of nature. Been around since earliest Atlantic explorers so we know its not a result of us.

Ah but no "an explosion of harmful seaweed now stretches like a sea monster across the ocean" and “I think I’ve replaced my climate change anxiety with sargassum anxiety,” ahhh here it comes "But also clear from the data, is that it is growing inexorably, fed by the climate crisis."

BULLSHIT

Source (wipe your feet on the way out) The creeping threat of the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt

 

[capnsensible]

yes its a breeding ground transporting biodiversity from place to place. Full of nutrients. Good thing. Normal part of nature. Been around since earliest Atlantic explorers so we know its not a result of us.

Ah but no "an explosion of harmful seaweed now stretches like a sea monster across the ocean" and “I think I’ve replaced my climate change anxiety with sargassum anxiety,” ahhh here it comes "But also clear from the data, is that it is growing inexorably, fed by the climate crisis."

BULLSHIT

Source (wipe your feet on the way out) The creeping threat of the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt

I think you are out of your depth.....

It's clearly a big problem and getting worse. You can, of course, stick your head in the sand......if you can find it under all that weed.....smelly weed.....but I've actually seen it and how much it has increased since my first transat and the last, with 10 others in between over a period of 20 years.

The couple of times I arrived in Panama were 3 years apart. The increased biomass was huge.

Go see with your own eyes...... or follow your nose.

 

[Adios]

I think you are out of your depth.....

It's clearly a big problem and getting worse. You can, of course, stick your head in the sand......if you can find it under all that weed.....smelly weed.....but I've actually seen it and how much it has increased since my first transat and the last, with 10 others in between over a period of 20 years.

The couple of times I arrived in Panama were 3 years apart. The increased biomass was huge.

Go see with your own eyes...... or follow your nose.

I've seen that there's a resurgence in it since 2011 but its clearly not new even in significant mass "Christopher Columbus sailed across the wide Sargasso Sea: in 1492, he wrote that he feared his boat would be trapped in it." We don't know the extend of it at that time so lets not pretend we know it was any less in mass than now.

If it came and went on its own before its going to come and go on its own again. Its a part of nature leave it alone, let it do its thing, work around it while it persists. I object to hyperbole from people who are going to make money out of fear mongering over it especially the jokers latching it onto their climate gravy train.

 

[geem]

yes its a breeding ground transporting biodiversity from place to place. Full of nutrients. Good thing. Normal part of nature. Been around since earliest Atlantic explorers so we know its not a result of us.

Ah but no "an explosion of harmful seaweed now stretches like a sea monster across the ocean" and “I think I’ve replaced my climate change anxiety with sargassum anxiety,” ahhh here it comes "But also clear from the data, is that it is growing inexorably, fed by the climate crisis."

BULLSHIT

Source (wipe your feet on the way out) The creeping threat of the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt

Have you seen the effect on the Caribbean islands? These small countries rely on tourism. Closed beaches where its piled a 1m high. 100ft slick of it off the beach and seriously smell where it rots. They were moving it off the beach with JCBs for the last couple of weeks here. They have nowhere to put it. You can't compost it as its full of arsenic. Its a real problem for the economy of these islands. Where is gets in to the mangroves it kills the fish nursery by starving the shallow water of oxygen. There is no win here for anybody. It has got worse over the years. On our 2004 Atlantic crossing there was negligible weed. Now we see huge rafts of it and where there aren't huge rafts the whole sea is covered with smaller bits. This is not a small problem you can ignore and hope it goes away

 

[Adios]

Have you seen the effect on the Caribbean islands? These small countries rely on tourism. Closed beaches where its piled a 1m high. 100ft slick of it off the beach and seriously smell where it rots. They were moving it off the beach with JCBs for the last couple of weeks here. They have nowhere to put it. You can't compost it as its full of arsenic. Its a real problem for the economy of these islands. Where is gets in to the mangroves it kills the fish nursery by starving the shallow water of oxygen. There is no win here for anybody. It has got worse over the years. On our 2004 Atlantic crossing there was negligible weed. Now we see huge rafts of it and where there aren't huge rafts the whole sea is covered with smaller bits. This is not a small problem you can ignore and hope it goes away

Yes seen the reports. Seen significant seaweed piled up on beaches a few times in the UK and its not nice for a picnic, full of insects. Big spongy mass you can barely walk through. Was surprised how quickly it broke down and blew away though. As its full of nutrients it probably does a good job fertilizing the land around there when allowed to do its thing in naturally occurring concentrations. I see concern over arsenic when its been tried commercially probably very concentrated Sargassum Fertilizer Transfers Heavy Metals to Vegetables - DCNA but the jury is still out according to that source.

wannabe global saviours at the WEF have a photo of people managing to co-exist with it A 550 km-long mass of sargassum seaweed is heading for the pristine beaches of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula

Its the age old problem of nature inconveniencing man and man wanting to punch nature in the face for being inconvenient. Usually with an unintended consequence we can regret later.

This is not a small problem you can ignore and hope it goes away

Its massive. Any attempted response will have to be massive. How much pollution do the JCBs put out? And they're not scratching the surface no doubt. And pilling it up somewhere in an unnatural concentration with rotting fluid leeching into the soil instead of drying out spread on the beaches and blowing away dispersed onto the land as nature intended. Might last for a few more years. Might be 50 who knows. But a maxim from the healthcare world comes to mind. The doctor entertains the patient while nature takes care of the disease. More often true than you might think. Often in fact the doctors interventions are harmful and it would have been wiser to let nature deal with it. I think this will be one of them.

 

[capnsensible]

Yes seen the reports. Seen significant seaweed piled up on beaches a few times in the UK and its not nice for a picnic, full of insects. Big spongy mass you can barely walk through. Was surprised how quickly it broke down and blew away though. As its full of nutrients it probably does a good job fertilizing the land around there when allowed to do its thing in naturally occurring concentrations. I see concern over arsenic when its been tried commercially probably very concentrated Sargassum Fertilizer Transfers Heavy Metals to Vegetables - DCNA but the jury is still out according to that source.

wannabe global saviours at the WEF have a photo of people managing to co-exist with it A 550 km-long mass of sargassum seaweed is heading for the pristine beaches of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula

Its the age old problem of nature inconveniencing man and man wanting to punch nature in the face for being inconvenient. Usually with an unintended consequence we can regret later.


Its massive. Any attempted response will have to be massive. How much pollution do the JCBs put out? And they're not scratching the surface no doubt. And pilling it up somewhere in an unnatural concentration with rotting fluid leeching into the soil instead of drying out spread on the beaches and blowing away dispersed onto the land as nature intended. Might last for a few more years. Might be 50 who knows. But a maxim from the healthcare world comes to mind. The doctor entertains the patient while nature takes care of the disease. More often true than you might think. Often in fact the doctors interventions are harmful and it would have been wiser to let nature deal with it. I think this will be one of them.

Ah, so do nothing then. Great.

 

[Adios]

Ah, so do nothing then. Great.

Is it really grim there now then? You coming back to England because of it?

 

[capnsensible]

Is it really grim there now then? You coming back to England because of it?

?

 

[Adios]

?

Its not that bad is it. You're going to live with it. Like everyone else there will.

Have not noticed the pattern? Convince the public that a normal part of nature is an immense threat, put enough fear into them that they will shell out for an untested and probably ineffective solution, get rich.

 

[capnsensible]

Its not that bad is it. You're going to live with it. Like everyone else there will.

Have not noticed the pattern? Convince the public that a normal part of nature is an immense threat, put enough fear into them that they will shell out for an untested and probably ineffective solution, get rich.

People aren't living with it they are actively working hard to find solutions. They also ignore conspiracy theories for the gullible. Because its not normal. As people keep telling you.

 

[Adios]

People aren't living with it they are actively working hard to find solutions. They also ignore conspiracy theories for the gullible. Because its not normal. As people keep telling you.

They're wasting money on it. Watch this space people will be swooping on it with expensive fixes they'll get rich from with no requirement for it to work. I'm gullible to believe that? You need to get your head out of your...

 

[capnsensible]

They're wasting money on it. Watch this space people will be swooping on it with expensive fixes they'll get rich from with no requirement for it to work. I'm gullible to believe that? You need to get your head out of your...

See what I mean.....