GALVESTON, Texas – Crews in Galveston County are keeping a close eye on an enormous mat of seaweed floating out at sea.
Parts of the blob, called sargassum, span thousands of miles. While most are headed to Florida and the Caribbean, it could also affect our beaches.
Sargassum is a brown, macroalgae that floats at sea. It’s a critical sanctuary for marine life as it provides habitat, food, and protection for turtles, crabs fish, and more. But as it nears coastlines it chokes corals and diminished water and air quality. Out of the water, when it washes ashore, is when it decays and rots creating an unpleasant smell.
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Lee Crowder is Galveston County Road Administrator. “It’s like compost at that point, and anything composting or breaking down can give an obnoxious smell,” he said.
Crowder said there is a silver lining of large amounts of sargassum being beached.
“It can help trap additional sediments, which slows or prevents erosion. It is organic. It’s going to break down and won’t be there forever. We’ve been preparing for years now with a permit from the US Army Corps of Engineers to allow us to maintain our beaches in Galveston County and the unincorporated area of Galveston County. We were budgeted. We have equipment. We have the personnel. We have experience.”
Personnel and equipment on the Bolivar peninsula are standing by, ready.
Meanwhile, the concern is blossoming.
According to new information in the journal Water Research, the deadly bacteria called vibrio is able to attach to Sargassum and plastic debris floating in the ocean.
This is alarming because the size of this blob could potentially expand the range of these pathogens.
