Related: Lantana: Council to consider allowing sargassum removal from town beach
Don’t be surprised if seaweed starts showing up on south Palm Beach County beaches in even greater piles than have already been washing ashore this year.
The amount of sargassum in the tropical Atlantic Ocean hit a record in April only to be topped again in May, when scientists said total sargassum in the Atlantic — including the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean — went from 31 million tons to 37.5 million tons.
“As in most previous years, June is expected to see continued increases in most regions,” says the outlook put out May 31 by the University of South Florida Optical Oceanography Lab. “Sargassum inundation will continue to occur in most of the Caribbean nations and islands as well as along the southeast coast of Florida.”
Despite the historic seaweed level in the water, some local beaches still could catch a break. The report says that “whether a beach or small region receives record-high Sargassum inundation depends not only on the offshore Sargassum amount, but also on local factors that are difficult to predict, including winds and ocean currents.”
— Larry Barszewski
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