St. John’s Antigua: The Sargasso seaweed has made its way back on the shores of Antigua & Barbuda after an eight-month hiatus and at this point, marine experts say it poses no major threat to the environment, according to a report in the Observer.
In early 2011, an invasion of the seaweed that was extraordinary in volume and geographic scope besieged the eastern Caribbean, sending resorts and Government agencies scrambling to rid the beaches of the smelly, brown algae.
The Observer said that in Antigua, St James’s Club was forced to close for the month of September 2011 while it removed a large amount of seaweed from the beach. The weed, a floating species of algae known as Sargassum that inhabits the Sargasso Sea, had completely filled the bay on which the hotel sits and created piles as high as five feet tall on the usually pristine shore.
The resurgence of the weed over the past few weeks has sparked concern in the public because when it washed up last year it posed serious problems to the local ecosystem, the tourism and fishing sectors.
Gerald Price, Public Relations Officer of the Antigua and Barbuda Fishermen Co-operative said, “The Sargasso weed re-appearing has not done any more damage than it did before when it first appeared. When it appeared several months ago, it was the first time in history we had seen so much of this weed invading our shores and into our fishing grounds.”
Price said the weed affected the sports fishermen by clogging the boat engines, forcing them to go further into the ocean to clear the engines and it also severely hampered their businesses in terms of sales.
“Certain hotels where we sold our fish and lobsters could not buy because the Sargasso weed had invaded the beaches and several of them from the eastern and north-eastern side of the island had to be closed,” he said.
Price predicts that the invasion of the weed will increase as the hurricane season draws closer. “I believe, come the hurricane season and the change of the current, we are going to be invaded for a longer period with this nuisance called the Sargasso weed,” he said.
The Observer stated that environmentalist, Eli Fuller, said that the weed creeping up on the shoreline is not causing any major environmental problems. He said, however, damage would be done to the environment if the weed is not carefully removed from the beaches.
The species being observed is often found in association with Sargassum natans, both native to the Caribbean and both commonly called Sargasso seaweed.
Marine Biologist, John Mussington, believes that the effect of the Sargassum is not detrimental to marine life but a nuisance to persons who own beach properties. The weed, he said, could provide immense benefits to the agriculture sector if utilized in the correct way.
The marine biologist said the weed forms a part of life’s nature cycle and it is therefore necessary for people to understand it and put it to good use, the Observer stated.
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