Stinking mats of seaweed piling up on Caribbean beaches

[Judi Lynn]

Stinking mats of seaweed piling up on Caribbean beaches

By: David McFadden, Associated Press
Posted: 1:11 PM, Aug 10, 2015



Picture By John W. Schulze

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) -- The picture-perfect beaches and turquoise waters that people expect on their visits to the Caribbean are increasingly being fouled by mats of decaying seaweed that attract biting sand fleas and smell like rotten eggs.

Clumps of the brownish seaweed known as sargassum have long washed up on Caribbean coastlines, but researchers say the algae blooms have exploded in extent and frequency in recent years. The 2015 seaweed invasion appears to be a bumper crop, with a number of shorelines so severely hit that some tourists have canceled summer trips and lawmakers on Tobago have termed it a "natural disaster."

From the Dominican Republic in the north, to Barbados in the east, and Mexico's Caribbean resorts to the west, officials are authorizing emergency money to fund cleanup efforts and clear stinking mounds of seaweed that in some cases have piled up nearly 10 feet high on beaches, choked scenic coves and cut off moored boats.

With the start of the region's high tourism season a few months away, some officials are calling for an emergency meeting of the 15-nation Caribbean Community, worried that the worsening seaweed influx could become a chronic dilemma for the globe's most tourism-dependent region.

More:
http://www.wptv.com/news/world/stinking-mats-of-seaweed-piling-up-on-caribbean-beaches

[eppur_se_muova]

1. Careful -- that rotten egg stink may mean toxic hydrogen sulfide

H2S from rotting seaweed killed a horse and nearly killed its rider on a French beach.

Holidaymakers have been told to keep away from beaches in northern France covered in seaweed after doctors gave warning that it could give off lethal fumes when it rots.

A stretch of beach had to be closed after a horse rider lost consciousness as a result of the putrefying algae. His horse was killed. Local residents have also been treated in hospital.

The incident was in Brittany, where green seaweed is spreading across the region’s beaches as nitrates pollute the water supply as a result of intensive agriculture.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article6740...


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x204104

Several points on the beach tested positive for hydrogen sulphide at a concentration of 1,000 parts per million, a level that "can be deadly in a few minutes," the report said. INERIS recommended the area be cordoned off as a short-term precautionary measure, and for workers charged with clearing the algae be equipped with hydrogen sulphide detectors.

http://www.terradaily.com/2007/090820120953.i3l95shn.ht...


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x206017

If that rider had been on foot, he surely would have died. H2S is also a danger for scuba divers, as it can be absorbed through the skin, and accumulates in some underwater caves (and most of the Black Sea).

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. very informative post...thank you. n/t