Sargassum seaweed is an algae that grows in the Sargasso Sea and eventually drifts into the Gulf of Mexico, growing as it makes its journey. The currents return much of the seaweed to the Sargasso Sea, but some drifts into the nutrient-filled waters off the Texas Coast where it thrives. The recent series of cold fronts combined with currents to form ideal conditions for keeping the seaweed from drifting ashore as it normally would and instead continuing to flourish in the Gulf.
Webster estimated it grew by more than 30 percent. Finally a break in the weather allowed the immense collection of seaweed to drift ashore. Webster has researched newspaper reports of seaweed landings for the last century and found that extraordinarily large events occur about every 30 years.
The last major surge of seaweed came in the early s. The recent series of cold fronts was such an event. Webster developed the Sargassum Early Advisory System , which uses satellites to warn Galveston officials of the coming seaweed. Jesse Ojeda , operations manager for the Park Board beach cleaning department, stood on the seawall near the 61st Street Pier and watched a front-end loader tackle an immense, two-block long pile of seaweed that until Wednesday could not be moved because of high tides.
Galveston Beachfront Galveston Island is widely known for its 32 miles of beautiful gulf beaches. Seawall Parking Find complete information about paid parking on Seawall Boulevard.
Alcohol To ensure the safety of visitors and encourage more families to frequent Galveston Island beaches, the City of Galveston and the Galveston Park Board of Trustees have cooperatively banned alcohol consumption from most public beaches and the Seawall, with the exception of licensed concession areas. Also, please note all glass beverage containers are strictly prohibited.
Seaweed Information Is Galveston receiving higher than normal seaweed this year? Why is seaweed left on the beach? How often do crews maintain seaweed on the beach? Beach Access Map. McGuire-Dent Recreation Center. Wright Cuney Recreation Center. Just for Fun. Adult Programs. Youth After School Programs. Lasker Park Community Pool. The French have been grappling with sargassum epidemics on the islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe, and the west coast of Africa, particularly the Ivory Coast, has also been hit hard by the sea plant.
And while that system can give Galveston up to two weeks notice with no cloud cover, it still leaves scientists wanting more information on its taxonomy, carbon emissions and long-term migratory patterns. Sargassum originates in the Sargasso Sea, a region of the north Atlantic bound by a system of circulating ocean currents. The sargassum conundrum goes well beyond its unpredictable migration patterns.
One of the topics of discussion at the workshop last week was how to properly remove the seaweed from beaches when it arrives en masse like it did in , and what to do with it when it's removed.
Harvesting sargassum while it's still out in the ocean is not an option as the clusters of seaweed are thought to be critical early-life-stage habitats for commercial and recreational fisheries, including big dolphinfish like mahi-mahi. Kelly de Schaun, the executive director of Galveston's Parks Board was faced with that exact problem in the Summer of Seaweed, torn between the conventional wisdom of leaving seaweed in its place on the sand, and the hard economic reality of tourists fleeing the beaches because of its acrid, sulphuric smell.
That summer, the seaweed was removed with frontloading bulldozers, and some of it was deposited to reinforce dunes on Galveston's coastline. De Schaun said the parks board is now much better prepared for a sargassum recurrence, with improved practices and mechanisms for seaweed removal that won't contribute to the erosion of the city's beaches, including a machine called a "surf rake" that collects the seaweed on a conveyor belt that allows excess grains of sand to fall back down to the beach.
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