Summary
Around 2011, residents, tourists, and researchers began noticing unprecedented amounts of sargassum seaweed on and offshore of the southern U.S. coasts and Caribbean islands. Sargassum quickly began to disrupt fishing, tourism, nearshore ecosystems, and even caused health problems for populations exposed to rotting sargassum seaweed. Sargassum arrives on shore mixed with plastic trash and can be difficult and costly to clean up. An estimated 5-13 million tons of plastic enters the ocean each year, and sargassum blooms are estimated at over 20 million tons each year. While there have been incre
