Sargasso weed.

[Wansworth]

Panama is certainly not paradise. The city of Colon is aptly named. It looks like the footage you see of bombed out parts of Ukraine but its never been bombed. The crime is off the scale. You can't walk down the main street in Colon without being mugged.
Portobello, where we were anchored and lost the galvanising is a sh1t hole.
Going up the Rio Chagras was a highlight. Anchoring in the jungle surrounded by amazing wildlife and howler monkeys was amazing.
Bocas del Torro, in the North was not too bad, but the officials are crooks and on the take. They basically steal from you through the threat of not clearing you in. Disgusting.
San Blas is nice but over rated in my view.
Panama would not be on my list of places to visit again.
I might pass through on the way to the Pacific

Oh …..lucky my ambitions are closer to home

 

[capnsensible]

I didn't find colon that bad. As you get stuck in Shelter Bay for 10 days or more waiting for a canal transit it was a time filler to take the free bus across to the Mall in Colon. Big supermarket and a couple of chesp canteens. Plenty of security around.

Much better though is Panama City. And Balboa Pacific side.

People we know base their yacht in Shelter Bay and sail up to Boca De Torro every season.

Each to their own!

 

[geem]

I didn't find colon that bad. As you get stuck in Shelter Bay for 10 days or more waiting for a canal transit it was a time filler to take the free bus across to the Mall in Colon. Big supermarket and a couple of chesp canteens. Plenty of security around.

Much better though is Panama City. And Balboa Pacific side.

People we know base their yacht in Shelter Bay and sail up to Boca De Torro every season.

Each to their own!

We did that bus trip several times. The mall is a safe place. The walk from there in to the centre of Colon certainly isnt.
Panama City is fine. I love the modern high rises with all the dug up streets at the bottom. The underground infrastructure is terrible.
We did the trip from Bocas to Colon. We arrived in Bocas direct from the Bahamas.
Bocas is on the back pack trail so lots of youngsters about heading South. Some of the hiking trails near town have police stationed on them as muggings are routine. I have never seen so many police in one small town.
It a weird place chiseled out of the mangroves.
Lots of Americans have bought strips of land on the many islands and set up home. There is a radio net in the mornings where these home owners all call in. They each have a number. The net rollcall is each member shouting out their number in turn. It's a security thing incase anybody has been attacked over night in their home.

 

[capnsensible]

I noticed a lot of armed young bored soldiers all around the canal zone....

 

[Frogmogman]

Interesting new report into the explosion of Sargasso weed

Main driver of Sargassum blooms in the Atlantic Ocean revealed

 

[capnsensible]

Looks like a heavy year coming up. Problem is getting increasingly bad.

Lots of research into ways of harvesting the weed but nothing on the needed industrial scale yet.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

Looks like a heavy year coming up. Problem is getting increasingly bad.

Lots of research into ways of harvesting the weed but nothing on the needed industrial scale yet.

Back in the day I preferred my "weed " to come from North Africa.

 

[ducked]

Doesn't really explain it much; does the sargassum lose buoyancy once below 135m?

The linked article doesnt explain anything, but apparently the prototypr robot submarine they envisage using takes the stuff down to beyond the point where its buoyancy bladders collapse from the pressure and then it sinks.

How does the AlgaRay work? - SeaGen - Blue Tech For a Blue Planet

You would obviously need a big fleet of the things, the effect on the deep ocean seabed is probably largely unknown, and the narcotrafficos might co-opt some of the robosubs.

But its an idea

The published picture of the prototype looks to be a catamaran. The sub pictures are artists impressions, so I'd suspect the sub is just an idea at present.

 

[Frogmogman]

This popped up in my feed. Apologies to those who don’t speak French, but I’m confident that you’ll get the idea from watching the video.

Bretagne : démonstration d’un bateau de collecte de sargasses très prometteur pour les Antilles

 

[Bajansailor]

This popped up in my feed. Apologies to those who don’t speak French, but I’m confident that you’ll get the idea from watching the video.

Bretagne : démonstration d’un bateau de collecte de sargasses très prometteur pour les Antilles

Oh if only..... we would love to have a few of these vessels here - but the cost of one of these beasts is probably way north of US$ 500k (probably closer to US$ 1 million or more), so which little Caribbean islands can justify (or afford) to buy them?

 

[Frogmogman]

Oh if only..... we would love to have a few of these vessels here - but the cost of one of these beasts is probably way north of US$ 500k (probably closer to US$ 1 million or more), so which little Caribbean islands can justify (or afford) to buy them?

The piece says as much. The guy from Martinique makes the point that for the French islands to benefit from such machines would require subsidies from the French state.

 

[Bajansailor]

The piece says as much. The guy from Martinique makes the point that for the French islands to benefit from such machines would require subsidies from the French state.

I do hope that France can see fit to let them (and Guadeloupe) have one of these machines each - it would be nice if Britain would consider subsidising us with one, but the chances of this happening are non existent..... maybe if we had stayed a colony, rather than becoming independent.

 

[Malish]

I do hope that France can see fit to let them (and Guadeloupe) have one of these machines each - it would be nice if Britain would consider subsidising us with one, but the chances of this happening are non existent..... maybe if we had stayed a colony, rather than becoming independent.

global root cause analysis needed... reduce phosphate discharges into the oceans and pay more attention to warming trends, then downstream fixes are not required ?

 

[ducked]

global root cause analysis needed... reduce phosphate discharges into the oceans and pay more attention to warming trends, then downstream fixes are not required ?

"Paying more attention to warming trends" isnt going to reverse them, and substantive action that reverses/halts them seems rather unlikely.

 

[ducked]

I do hope that France can see fit to let them (and Guadeloupe) have one of these machines each - it would be nice if Britain would consider subsidising us with one, but the chances of this happening are non existent..... maybe if we had stayed a colony, rather than becoming independent.

Looks maintenance-intensive, so operating costs would probably also be substantial. Might be quite short-lived.

 

[ducked]

The linked article doesnt explain anything, but apparently the prototypr robot submarine they envisage using takes the stuff down to beyond the point where its buoyancy bladders collapse from the pressure and then it sinks.

How does the AlgaRay work? - SeaGen - Blue Tech For a Blue Planet

You would obviously need a big fleet of the things, the effect on the deep ocean seabed is probably largely unknown, and the narcotrafficos might co-opt some of the robosubs.

But its an idea

The published picture of the prototype looks to be a catamaran. The sub pictures are artists impressions, so I'd suspect the sub is just an idea at present.

I wonder how the financing is supposed to work. Perhaps the project could generate carbon credits, which could be sold?