Mmmmm, Hydrogen Sulfide!! Massive Sargassum Bloom Heading For Florida/Gulf Coasts
For much of the year, an enormous brown blob floats, relatively harmlessly, across the Atlantic Ocean. Its tendrils provide shelter and breeding grounds for fish, crabs and sea turtles. Spanning thousands of miles, it is so large that it can be seen from outer space. But scientists say that in the coming months, the blob — a tangled, buoyant, mass of a type of seaweed called sargassum — is expected to come ashore in Florida and elsewhere along the Gulf of Mexico. No longer will the blob be gentle; scientists say it will then begin to rot, emitting toxic fumes and fouling the region’s beaches over the busiest summer months.
The seaweed, which can also cause pollution and threaten human health as it decays, has already begun to creep onto the shores of Key West, Fla. In Mexico, “excessive” levels of the seaweed were recorded last month choking beaches south of Cancún. Photos and videos from the region show beachgoers wading through the brown muck along usually glistening beaches. “You can’t get in the water,” Leonard Shea, a travel YouTuber, said in a recent video from the resort town of Playa del Carmen that showed waves lapping beneath a thick blanket of the seaweed. “It’s not an enjoyable experience.”
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According to the National Oceanography and Atmospheric Administration, the sargassum blooms will continue to disrupt Caribbean waters into mid-October. While floating sargassum can benefit marine animals by providing shade and shelter, the problems begin once it comes ashore. As the sargassum begins to die, it degrades the water quality and pollutes beaches, scientists say. It can also choke vital mangrove habitats and suck oxygen out of the water. The decaying algae also releases hydrogen sulfide, a colorless gas that smells like rotten eggs, and can cause respiratory problems in humans.
Last summer, the U.S. Virgin Islands declared a state of emergency, after “unusually high amounts” of sargassum piled up on its shores, affecting a desalination plant on the island of St. Croix. And in 2018, after a mass bloom that sprawled across about 5,500 miles in the Atlantic Ocean, doctors on the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique reported thousands of cases of “acute” exposure to hydrogen sulfide, according to a study published that year.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/14/us/seaweed-blob-florida-mexico.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
next time Im up there Ill have a peek 
That looks so uninviting. 
