seaweed

melphis

Living my Dream
Apr 18, 2013
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I live just west of Macao beach and today a mass of seaweed that was the size of a small island washed up on shore. It looked like something out of a horror movie. We have been having massive amounts of seaweed since September. Does anyone out there know why the seaweed is so drastic this year.
We have been here for 7 years and have never seen anything like this.
 

melphis

Living my Dream
Apr 18, 2013
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Thanks for the info and link. Hopefully our gardeners won't quit or commit suicide over this.
 

Contango

Banned
Dec 27, 2010
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I saw an article or advertisement in punta cana lifestyle magazine about a guy who has started a company bringing in specially equipped tractors to remove the weed from resort beaches. Now there is a biz opp maybe?
 

Jaime809

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Aug 23, 2012
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It's horrible here in Bavaro. Last year the resorts could keep up with it. Nowadays, I see the workers trying to bury it in the sand (the same sand that the high-tide washes out every night).
 

ju10prd

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Nov 19, 2014
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Playa Rincon looked a mess today especially at the north end. Seaweed piled nearly 3 ft high....no way you even think of swimming at that end.....at least it was half decent at the east end...........but not the picturesque beach we all know.
 

Jaime809

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Aug 23, 2012
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Evidently this stuff sitting around is helping attract the biting sand flies, those little suckers that are small enough to get through screens.
 

MikeFisher

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Feb 28, 2006
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it is present all around.
the last couple years it's amount increased immense compared to all prior years of my 2 decades living on the beach here. this year is the by far worse, the punta cana region is covered with seaweed since summer, but not just here of course, it is a caribbean wide thingy and reaches even far north to the atlantic shores of the northern continent.

Mike
 

ju10prd

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Nov 19, 2014
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it is present all around.
the last couple years it's amount increased immense compared to all prior years of my 2 decades living on the beach here. this year is the by far worse, the punta cana region is covered with seaweed since summer, but not just here of course, it is a caribbean wide thingy and reaches even far north to the atlantic shores of the northern continent.

Mike

Seems the seaweed or Sargassum now regularly seen on Caribbean, Atlantic Coast and Gulf beaches is either due to changes in the Ocean currents due to climate change stripping off amounts of this stuff from the Saragossa Sea (where it covers an area of about the size of South Africa) or maybe a rise in ocean surface temperature coupled with additional pollution such as resulted from BP Gulf spill.

Guess we have to get used to it.........and use it as a biofuel.
 
Aug 6, 2006
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Is the increase in seaweed washing up a result of a growth spurt of seaweed, or seaweed dying and getting loose from its roots? I suppose someone is studying this, somewhere.
 

ju10prd

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Is the increase in seaweed washing up a result of a growth spurt of seaweed, or seaweed dying and getting loose from its roots? I suppose someone is studying this, somewhere.

The Saragassum is a living sea weed kept afloat by the bladders you see on it. It has normally been associated as a floating mass in the Saragossa Sea which is an area of the Atlantic off the east coast of the USA which is a breeding grounds for eels and apparently young turtles and other marine life thrive off it.

What I have read suggests that it is perhaps being stripped off this massive area and taken far and wide by currents which have changed their course over years due to a changing environment. The Gulf Stream is one such Atlantic sea current that has changed.There is no firm evidence that changes in sea temperature nor increased nutrients in the sea due to pollution are causing an increase in the weed.
 

MikeFisher

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and i did not read that there is a "increase" of Seaweed at all, it is just present in increased amounts here but that may mean it is present in less than usual amounts at it's origin, where it usually stays due slow>/low force currents in the area known as the Sargassum Sea. maybe it is not MORE Seaweed in the Ocean, but more Seaweed taken off from it's original grounds and brought around to other destins like our caribbean paradise.

Mike
 

chic

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Nov 20, 2013
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fertilizer???i dont think so....the amount of fresh water needed to wash it????? salt water fertilizer???
and the japs eat it...so you have a fresh bonanza....free product...
it also makes a wonderful salt bath...i.e. you gather it and bring it home dry it and then when you want a beauty bath...you add a square foot of it to a soaking bath...free spa treatment with a little work...