[Coral-List] Sargassum fluitans proliferation in the Lesser Antilles

[Frank Muller-Karger]

Alan -
the Orinoco or the rivers are not the source of Sargassum; Sargassum, when 
attached to the benthos, gorws in large beds in generally quite clear 
water. A lot of it grows in the Caribbean, along the FL keys, etc.
Frank


______________ FMK ______________
Frank Muller-Karger
Institute for Marine Remote Sensing (IMaRS)
College of Marine Science
University of South Florida
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St Petersburg, FL 33701

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On Wed, 10 Aug 2011, Alan.e.strong wrote:

> Isn't this likely to have its origin from the Orinoco River's outflow
> into the area from Venezuela??
>
> Cheers,
> Al
>
> On 8/9/2011 12:30 PM, OMMM Association wrote:
>> Dear all
>>
>> Since May, 2011, a huge amount of pelagic sargassum piles up along the
>> coast of Martinique and Guadeloupe in the Lesser Antilles, and might
>> affect probably all the islands in the area.
>> Tons of algae enter the bays and cover the beaches. This accumulation of
>> floating sargassum can also extends at the surface of the water for tens
>> of meters in semi closed area, causing environmental problems to very
>> coastal communities.
>>
>> We have not seen any comments since this began in May. The algae still
>> accumulates and cause management problems for local authorities. This is
>> also the marine turtles' nesting period, what has an incidence on local
>> decision to remove the algae accumulated on the beaches. Those algae
>> decomposed and toxic gaz might be produced, as H2S, which is quite low
>> from the measures that have been done at the moment (0-3 ppm).
>>
>> Is there any information we could share on the origin of this
>> proliferation of pelagic sargassum in the area?
>> Who else in the Lesser Antilles or elsewhere face the same problem?
>>
>> We do airplane survey and fly over the coastal area to detect piles of
>> sargassum away offshore looking at possible trajectories.
>>
>> We are interested in any satellite images that could detect those saragssum.
>>
>> Thanks
>> Jean-Philippe Maréchal
>>
>> ****************************************************
>> Dr Jean-Philippe Maréchal, DSci
>> Director
>> Observatoire du Milieu Marin Martiniquais
>> 3 avenue Condorcet
>> 97200 Fort de France
>> Tel : +33 (5) 96 39 42 16
>> http://www.ommm.org
>>
>> GDRI "Coral Reef Biodiversity" - CNRS
>> Associate Director
>> http://www.gdri-corail.org
>>
>>
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>
> -- 
> ****<><  *******<><  *******<><  *******<><  *******
> Alan E. Strong, Ph.D.
> NOAA Coral Reef Watch, Consultant
> Strong Research, Inc.&  IMSG
> National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
> NOAA Coral Reef Watch Program
>  e-mail: Alan.E.Strong at noaa.gov
> url: coralreefwatch.noaa.gov
>
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