Unusually large patches of Sargassum weed are covering parts of the sea in the Caribbean region, with rafts of it reaching the territory.
“There’s been some washed up at the Divi and some east,” William Coles, chief of environmental education at the Fish and Wildlife Division of the Planning and Natural Resources Department, said, referring to the Divi Carina Bay Resort and Spa.
Rafe Boulon, chief of resource management at V.I. National Park, said he’s seen Sargassum weed all the way from St. John to Puerto Rico. He said the first “pulse” came in early to mid-July, but another one appears to have arrived recently.
“Yesterday, I saw a bunch at Red Hook,” Boulon said.
According to Coles, scientists suspect that the Sargassum weed bloomed in the Sargasso Sea, located far north of the territory and off the east coast of the United States. The Sargassum weed lives on the surface of the sea in the Sargasso Sea.
What caused the bloom remains unknown, but Coles speculated warmer waters caused by global climate change might be the culprit. He said a Sargassum bloom is similar to the algae blooms that occur periodically in the Virgin Islands.
Scientists think a storm broke up the mats of Sargassum weed in the Sargasso Sea, pushing them south toward the Caribbean, Coles said. He said places such as Antigua have harbors nearly covered with the weed and rafts of it two and three feet deep on some beaches.
The Virgin Islands usually sees some Sargassum weed in its harbors and on beaches during the summer months, but this year the amount is excessive, Coles said.
The Sargassum weed poses no danger to beach goers and swimmers, Coles said, but they need to watch out for crabs and fish living in the weed.
Boulon sees it as a “tragedy” for the marine life that lives in the Sargassum weed.
“All those little crabs, shrimp and fish end up getting gobbled up by predators,” Boulon said.
He said many of them have adapted to life in the Sargassum weed by taking on the colors of the week and growing spikes like the weed.
“It’s neat stuff to look at,” Boulon said.
As for environmental damage, the jury’s still out on that. Coles said Planning is in the midst of evaluating what happens when the weed decomposes on the beach.
The online encyclopedia Wikipedia notes that Sargassum was named by the Portuguese sailors who found it in the Sargasso Sea. The named it after a species of rock rose (Helianthemum) that grew in their water wells at home and that was called sargaço in Portuguese
