# Sargasso Sea and Sargassum



## SeaBreeze (May 24, 2020)

This seaweed is really thick and dense, look at it on the beach, I could see where there would be concern with it jamming in boat motors.



> The Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic Ocean, near the Caribbean, is unlike any other sea in this planet. The boundaries of the sea are defined not by landmasses, but by four currents that swirl clockwise around the Bermuda forming a vast whirlpool called the North Atlantic gyre. The Sargasso Sea is part of this gyre. These ocean currents bring marine plants and debris from far away and deposit them into the gyre, yet the ocean water in the Sargasso Sea has a deep blue color and exceptional clarity. But the most defining characteristic of the Sargasso Sea is the presence of a seaweed called sargassum, that exist in large floating mats hundreds, and sometimes thousands of kilometers long. The Sargasso Sea got its name from this weed.
> 
> Early explorers regarded the Sargasso Sea with fear because they thought their ships would get stuck in the weed. When Christopher Columbus’s _Santa María_ sailed to the Canary Island through the Sargasso Sea, he noted in the ship’s log that the weed was “so thick that it actually held back the ships.” Areas of the sea also overlaps the mythic Bermuda Triangle, and there have been stories of ships getting stuck in the sea for years. But its not the weed that causes ships to suddenly stop moving in the Sargasso Sea. It’s the wind, or the lack of it.
> 
> In the past decade, the sargassum in the Sargasso Sea has been prolificating rapidly. Large mats of the seaweed now stretches across the North Atlantic, some eight thousand kilometers long. Scientist call it “The Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt”. Sargassum now regularly wash ashore on beaches of the tropical Atlantic, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico in vast quantities, where they rot and emit foul smell. Experts say that increasing levels of nutrients that are being flushed into ocean via the Amazon in the spring and summer each year, as a result of human activities including deforestation and fertilizer use, have resulted in the growth.




https://www.amusingplanet.com/2019/12/sargasso-sea-and-sargassum.html


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## Aunt Marg (May 24, 2020)

Wow!

Love the tidbit of history surrounding Christopher Columbus!


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## Ruthanne (May 24, 2020)

I've never heard of that Sea before...learn something new every day!


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## SeaBreeze (May 24, 2020)

Ruthanne said:


> I've never heard of that Sea before...learn something new every day!


Me too Ruth!


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## Aunt Marg (May 24, 2020)

Me, three!


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## RadishRose (May 24, 2020)

A question would be... how can we utilize this weed?


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## Aunt Marg (May 24, 2020)

RadishRose said:


> A question would be... how can we utilize this weed?








Just exactly what are you talking about here, RR?


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## SeaBreeze (May 24, 2020)

RadishRose said:


> A question would be... how can we utilize this weed?


Looks like they've found some uses Rose.

https://www.villapalmarcancun.com/b...ve-uses-of-sargassum-seaweed-in-the-caribbean


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## RadishRose (May 24, 2020)

No, but you're funny. @Aunt Marg .

I just look at this heap of rotting vegetation and think there must be something we can do with it!

Since it decomposes, it's not stable. Since it's salty, no good for fertilizer.

Didn't we make things like toothpaste, lipstick and other cosmetics out of seaweeds at one time?


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## RadishRose (May 24, 2020)

Oh @SeaBreeze, I missed this while you were posting. I'll take a look!


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## SeaBreeze (May 24, 2020)

RadishRose said:


> Oh @SeaBreeze, I missed this while you were posting. I'll take a look!


Thanks Rose, I had no idea if they were using it for anything productive before your post, good question!


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## RadishRose (May 24, 2020)

SeaBreeze said:


> Looks like they've found some uses Rose.
> 
> https://www.villapalmarcancun.com/b...ve-uses-of-sargassum-seaweed-in-the-caribbean


I am so glad to see this SB. I didn't realize it's potential as fertilizer once washed! I feel better now.


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## Em in Ohio (May 30, 2020)

SeaBreeze said:


> This seaweed is really thick and dense, look at it on the beach, I could see where there would be concern with it jamming in boat motors.
> 
> https://www.amusingplanet.com/2019/12/sargasso-sea-and-sargassum.html


https://www.villapalmarcancun.com/b...ve-uses-of-sargassum-seaweed-in-the-caribbean

I saw a special on how they are turning this seaweed into bricks to build low-cost housing, as mentioned in your excellent link.  Creative minds took what was a problem and are turning it into a solution.  Respect!


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