By Samantha Simon
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The Caribbean is facing a major environmental crisis this summer as a mass of sargassum seaweed measuring approximately 5,000 miles wide and up to seven feet deep approaches the region’s shores.
This comes to light as Antigua and Barbuda works together with French territories Guadeloupe and Martinique who are taking measures to fight the seaweed’s effects on their shores.
Antigua and Barbuda has also sent off samples of sargassum to Finland for testing in regards to its potential uses for fertiliser, biofuel, fabrics, soaps and perfumes, as well as other cottage industries that have already begun to appear locally such as Dadli Yellow which has worked towards manufacturing swimwear out of sargassum fabric.
This massive seaweed bloom, which has doubled in size every month from November to January forming a belt wider than the continental United States, is expected to reach the Caribbean in late June and early July. It has already been seen washing up on beaches across the nation.
The seaweed also creates a number of other environmental issues by clogging up beaches and other areas, making them difficult to access and creating an unpleasant odour.
The floating algae that bears berry-like bubbles filled with oxygen that keep it buoyant provides a habitat for countless species of marine wildlife that may prove to become invasive upon entry to the region. When the seaweed reaches shore, it decays in the sun and releases hydrogen sulphide, which smells like rotten eggs and can aggravate respiratory problems such as asthma.
The seaweed also affects local fisheries, as it clogs the nets and traps of fishermen, making it difficult to catch fish whilst also causing mass anoxic events, causing areas of the sea to have significant oxygen depletion resulting in an increase in harmful bacteria, viruses and algae, as well as a decrease in fish and other aquatic life.
In previous seasons, Barbados has been forced to deploy as many as 1,600 dump trucks daily while the USVI was forced to declare a state of emergency due to the influx.
Governments and local social entrepreneurs are working to reduce the impact of the sargassum by removing it from the beaches and developing methods of using it as a fertiliser or other beneficial uses. Despite this, the best method of dealing with the yearly growing masses remains mitigation.