Has your day at the beach been dampened by a shore full of stinky, brown seaweed?
If you live in southeast Florida, you probably already know that the masses of brown, crunchy seaweed that float near the shore and end up on the sand are a nuisance to beachcombers and swimmers alike.
But there are beaches in Florida where sargassum isn’t a huge issue in the summer and doesn’t turn up in large quantities?
Here’s what sargassum seaweed is and which Florida coast is best for avoiding huge piles of sargassum.
What is sargassum seaweed?
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), “Sargassum is a genus of large brown seaweed (a type of algae) that floats in island-like masses and never attaches to the seafloor.”
On some beaches in Florida, the dry, brown stinky seaweed turns up in fairly large “blobs.” In one of our photo galleries, you'll see a small "mountain" of sargassum seaweed, and a black dog posing next to it. It turns up in the water, on the shore and surrounds beachgoers who just want to play in the sand and surf.
But you’re not doomed to encounter a sargassum mountain every time you visit the beach in Florida, and it does serve a purpose for marine life.
“It provides an important habitat for migratory organisms that have adapted specifically to this floating algae, including crab, shrimp, sea turtles and commercially important fish species such as tuna and marlin,” according to Florida Health.
Is it safe to swim with sargassum?
Sargassum can’t poison you or kill you, but it can sometimes irritate your skin if you play with it or swim in it.
And it isn’t the seaweed itself that can irritate your skin.
“Sargassum does not sting or cause rashes,” Florida Health’s sargassum fact sheet says. “However, tiny organisms that live in sargassum (like larvae of jellyfish) may irritate skin if they come in contact with it.”
The other way sargassum can affect your senses is through your airways. The stink that comes from the washed up seaweed is actually due to its chemical composition.
As sargassum rots and decomposes, it releases hydrogen sulfide gas, which is what makes it smell like rotten eggs. For those with pre-existing respiratory conditions, like asthma, the smell of sargassum could exacerbate symptoms, according to Florida Health’s guide on sargassum.
But it isn’t likely to cause any real health effects when in an open-air setting, like the beach.
“If you are exposed to hydrogen sulfide for a long time in an enclosed space with little air flow (like some work exposures), it can affect your health,” Florida Health says.
“However, hydrogen sulfide levels in an area like the beach, where large amounts of air flow can dilute levels, is not expected to harm health.”
May 2024 sargassum outlook:Will seaweed on Florida beaches be bad in 2024?
Where will sargassum hit in Florida?
It's possible for sargassum to wash up on any beach in Florida, but there are some beaches where it’s rare or underwhelming, and some where huge masses of the seaweed are expected every summer.
Florida’s southeast coast gets the brunt of summer’s sargassum blobs, whereas beaches on Florida’s west coast only get a little bit of seaweed, if any.
"If large amounts of sargassum do come to Florida at that time — late May or early June — the most impacted areas will be the lower Florida Keys (ocean side) and along the southeast coast of Florida (Miami Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach, etc)," Chuanmin Hu, professor of optical photography at the University of South Florida told TCPalm in April.
What beaches are not affected by sargassum?
While huge piles wash up on Florida’s southeast coast, Florida beaches along the Gulf of Mexico don’t typically see giant seaweed piled up on their beaches in the summer.
“Southwest Florida doesn't often get covered by sargassum as the prevailing currents tend to keep the massive piles of seaweed away from our coast,” the Fort Myers News Press reported in early May.
“Sure, you can find it on local beaches, but it's scattered and actually a healthy part of what's known as the wrack line.”
It’s too early to predict which beaches will get the biggest sargassum blobs this summer, but Florida’s gulf coast typically sees less than the southeast coast. If you’re hoping to avoid the brown, stinky seaweed, the west coast of Florida is your best bet for a stink-free beach day.
If you’d like to plan your trip to the beach around how much sargassum will be on the shore or in the water, sargassummonitoring.com has a forecast map that projects what the sargassum outlook is for the next seven days.
