New horror revealed in sargassum blob

Cayman News Service

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Sargassum in North Sound (file photo)

(CNS): Scientists have discovered that a flesh-eating bacteria is interacting with sargassum and decaying plastic in the ocean, creating the perfect “pathogen” storm that has implications for both marine life and public health. Researchers at Florida Atlantic University have found that the bacteria might be adapting to plastic and living in sargassum, washing up on beaches in a new environmental horror. 

The seaweed has already been washing up on local shores over the last few weeks. Given the current size of the Atlantic sargassum belt, dubbed the “great blob”, as it has grown to reach some 5,500 miles across and is currently moving through our region, we can expect to see much more in the coming months.

It is already a major problem for the tourism sector, as visitors complain about the smell and efforts to get rid of it cause beach erosion. The mass of seaweed doubled every month between November and January, according…

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