Sargasso weed.

[dunedin]

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...

Please remind us of your professional qualifications in this subject, and the source of your extensive research data.
Or is this more of your “conspiracy theory” stuff (like you expoused on Covid) that has no place on a boating forum

 

[Adios]

Please remind us of your professional qualifications in this subject, and the source of your extensive research data.
Or is this more of your “conspiracy theory” stuff (like you expoused on Covid) that has no place on a boating forum

I keep forgetting this is a place where people like nothing other than mildly agreeing with each other. Except on anchors of course.

 

[geem]

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.

Where it rots and produces hydrogen sulphide, there have been reported breathing difficulties. This isn't like a bit of seaweed on the beach in the UK. This is a MASSIVE problem. Nature doesn't benefit when it hits the beaches and man certainly doesnt. I am not sure you would have your flippant attitude if you can see the consequences when they are here, in your face. May to September is turtle egg laying season. The seaweed pilesd on windward beaches are a concern. Turtles get stuck in the 3 foot deep rotting quagmire on the beaches making it impossible for them to lay eggs. Nature won't benefit from this

 

[capnsensible]

I keep forgetting this is a place where people like nothing other than mildly agreeing with each other. Except on anchors of course.

Oh no it isn't.

 

[richardh10]

Oh no it isn't.

That's a bit harsh

 

[Frogmogman]

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

Not sure about your side of the channel, but there are annoyingly large amounts of it over in North Brittany, so I’m not sure that coming back would provide much relief.

We’re just spent two out of the last 3 weeks on the boat, sailing around the baie de St Brieuc. The strong easterlies that have been such a feature of the last month have blown loads of it into the bay. I was having to clear it off the rudders every day, despite doing my best to avoid the large clumps.

If only the Orcas could be trained to snack on it instead of rudders

 

[sarabande]

Fascinating that heavy metals such as cadmium and arsenic are apparently being found in sargassum. The background level of arsenic is 1.5 μg/L in seawater, so it looks as if there is a biological concentration mechanism in the weed. Or the tests using the weed as fertiliser are concentrating the metals by piling weed in heaps above soil.

If there were a poison problem, would fish and crustaceans survive in the weed ? Perhaps Geem can dig around on his next windsurf excursion ?

The bloom will probably be killed off by the next El NiNo event

 

[veshengro]

" If only the Orcas could be trained to snack on it instead of rudders "

That's what we need.. Veggie Orcas.

 

[KevinV]

It's undeniable that the weed is either growing faster than it used to, or isn't being kept in place like it used to - the evidence is washing up in stinking heaps where it previously didn't. Something has changed.

Any aquarium owner knows that increasing co2 levels encourages plant growth, as does raising temperature and nutrient levels - all things that are occurring in the oceans. It's not beyond the imagination that sargasso weed might be one of the "winners" in this - that it is particularly good at exploiting one or all of these factors.

We also know that ocean currents are changing - is it beyond the imagination that the gyre that has kept the weed in place is weakening? Certainly not beyond mine.

Either, or a combination of both, would lead to weed escaping the sargasso sea in quantities not previously seen.

As for the chemical composition - I don't see why that seems implausible to some - there are many poisonous plants that creatures live ON, they just don't eat them. Perfectly normal defence mechanism for the weed to adopt.

I'm not making any specific claim that the weed problem is man made, although to me it seems entirely plausible, but denying it exists at all is not going to help in finding solutions.

 

[Roberto]

There is an experimental product from NOAA about distribution and risk of sargassum "inundation"
CoastWatch Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico Regional Node - Experimental Weekly Sargassum Inundation Risk (SIR v1.3)

 

[geem]

It's undeniable that the weed is either growing faster than it used to, or isn't being kept in place like it used to - the evidence is washing up in stinking heaps where it previously didn't. Something has changed.

Any aquarium owner knows that increasing co2 levels encourages plant growth, as does raising temperature and nutrient levels - all things that are occurring in the oceans. It's not beyond the imagination that sargasso weed might be one of the "winners" in this - that it is particularly good at exploiting one or all of these factors.

We also know that ocean currents are changing - is it beyond the imagination that the gyre that has kept the weed in place is weakening? Certainly not beyond mine.

Either, or a combination of both, would lead to weed escaping the sargasso sea in quantities not previously seen.

As for the chemical composition - I don't see why that seems implausible to some - there are many poisonous plants that creatures live ON, they just don't eat them. Perfectly normal defence mechanism for the weed to adopt.

I'm not making any specific claim that the weed problem is man made, although to me it seems entirely plausible, but denying it exists at all is not going to help in finding solutions.

They are removing tonnes and tonnes every day from a quite small beach close to where we are anchored. It's piled 2 metres high on the beach. This beach seems to catch a huge amount of weed. It's been going on for weeks.

 

[Frogmogman]

Fascinating that heavy metals such as cadmium and arsenic are apparently being found in sargassum. The background level of arsenic is 1.5 μg/L in seawater, so it looks as if there is a biological concentration mechanism in the weed. Or the tests using the weed as fertiliser are concentrating the metals by piling weed in heaps above soil.

If there were a poison problem, would fish and crustaceans survive in the weed ? Perhaps Geem can dig around on his next windsurf excursion ?

The bloom will probably be killed off by the next El NiNo event

The concentration of heave metals was one of the things that a French study of using sargasso weed as an energy source in a biodigester found problematic, as a way of removing it would be necessary for the residue to be suitable for use as fertiliser.

 

[RupertW]

But sargasso is also part of the solution to climate change as like all plants it absorbs CO2. Every kilo of sargassum has removed over 100 litres of CO2 from the atmosphere and there must be many many million tons of it floating right now. We saw it all the way from Cabo Verde to the Caribbean this year, far more widespread than before, bringing life to the ocean surface and lots of biodiversity. Only a very small proportion of that lands on beaches where it rots and releases it except where it gets buried and stabilises sand.

But of course it’s a massive problem for the people of the Caribbean who rely on beautiful but sterile beaches.

 

[Kelpie]

But sargasso is also part of the solution to climate change as like all plants it absorbs CO2. Every kilo of sargassum has removed over 100 litres of CO2 from the atmosphere and there must be many many million tons of it floating right now. We saw it all the way from Cabo Verde to the Caribbean this year, far more widespread than before, bringing life to the ocean surface and lots of biodiversity. Only a very small proportion of that lands on beaches where it rots and releases it except where it gets buried and stabilises sand.

But of course it’s a massive problem for the people of the Caribbean who rely on beautiful but sterile beaches.

The planet adapts and changes, and the humans have to attempt to live with the consequences.

So sargassum isn't really a 'solution' to climate change, it's a result of it.

 

[RupertW]

The planet adapts and changes, and the humans have to attempt to live with the consequences.

So sargassum isn't really a 'solution' to climate change, it's a result of it.

It’s both a partial solution and a consequence. It’s as if the Gaia hypothesis is real.

 

[geem]

But sargasso is also part of the solution to climate change as like all plants it absorbs CO2. Every kilo of sargassum has removed over 100 litres of CO2 from the atmosphere and there must be many many million tons of it floating right now. We saw it all the way from Cabo Verde to the Caribbean this year, far more widespread than before, bringing life to the ocean surface and lots of biodiversity. Only a very small proportion of that lands on beaches where it rots and releases it except where it gets buried and stabilises sand.

But of course it’s a massive problem for the people of the Caribbean who rely on beautiful but sterile beaches.

It's a problem where the sargassum hits mangrove areas. These are fish nurseries. The sargassum chokes the oxygen in the shallow waters. Everything dies. It hits turtle nesting beaches. No turtles. Sand doesn't need stabilisation in the Caribbean. There are minimal tides to scour away beaches.
The beaches here where we are anchored are full of wild life. Small sharks in the shallows, rays, lots of fish, crabs in holes in the sand but when we get a wind reversal the sargassum collects on the beach and chokes everything.
The effects of human climate change are not a great thing

 

[KevinV]

Interesting idea here which makes a lot of sense:

Sinking Seaweed to Capture Carbon and Clean Up Caribbean Coasts

My only concern is that we understand so little of how the deep sea functions and interacts with the surface that we could easily create terrible unintended consequences.

 

[RupertW]

It's a problem where the sargassum hits mangrove areas. These are fish nurseries. The sargassum chokes the oxygen in the shallow waters. Everything dies. It hits turtle nesting beaches. No turtles. Sand doesn't need stabilisation in the Caribbean. There are minimal tides to scour away beaches.
The beaches here where we are anchored are full of wild life. Small sharks in the shallows, rays, lots of fish, crabs in holes in the sand but when we get a wind reversal the sargassum collects on the beach and chokes everything.
The effects of human climate change are not a great thing

But one of the partial solutions is a great thing except in a small area with small populations - no matter how important that impact is to that area. I love it and am currently basing my boat there but there is a much much bigger picture.

 

[geem]

But one of the partial solutions is a great thing except in a small area with small populations - no matter how important that impact is to that area. I love it and am currently basing my boat there but there is a much much bigger picture.

No there isn't. This is the big picture. These are damaged ecosystems due to mankind. Go to the uninhabited parts of San Blas and the millions of plastic bottles on the beaches and chocking the mangroves. More misery created by humans too lazy. 'Just trow it in the sea. Its only one bottle'

 

[RupertW]

No there isn't. This is the big picture. These are damaged ecosystems due to mankind. Go to the uninhabited parts of San Blas and the millions of plastic bottles on the beaches and chocking the mangroves. More misery created by humans too lazy. 'Just trow it in the sea. Its only one bottle'

Firstly the sea is very different to 20 years ago - when I crossed the Atlantic then we saw maybe one bottle or bit of plastic every two or three hours in open ocean. This year we saw 2 in 16 days. So the macro plastics are not being pumped out nearly so visibly although micro ones are growing and growing.

But the big picture is 7 billion humans not a few islands and a few million affected by a byproduct of global change that is acting as a negative feedback on CO2 increases. That is very very lucky for the vast majority.