Atlantic Sargassum Blooms Expand

The Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt is producing large accumulations across the tropical Atlantic, with blooms reaching the Caribbean, Mexico, Florida, and other coastal areas.

Research points to the Gulf of Guinea as an important source region and links bloom growth and transport to a combination of warming, rainfall, nutrients, sunlight, winds, circulation, and natural variability. Coastal deposits are creating cleanup burdens and risks including odors, oxygen depletion, ecosystem disruption, and possible exposure to arsenic during decomposition.