Largest-Ever Patch of Seaweed Bloom Stretches 5,500 Miles from Africa to Gulf of Mexico
The largest patch of seaweed bloom in the world is stretching some 5,500 miles from Africa to the Gulf of Mexico, threatening marine life and coastal communities. A new study from a team of scientists at the University of South Florida said that the historic patch may become “the new normal.” The patch is so huge that in total it weighs 20 million tons, the same as 200 fully loaded aircraft carriers. The patch is called the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt (GASB), and it’s made up of floating photosynthetic brown algae. The problem is that such a large amount of…