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

[Ulf Erlingsson]

Forgive my ignorance, but has the Sargassum Sea got some relevance  
for this? (I.e., the center of the North Atlantic ocean gyre, which  
normally acts as a "sink" of floating debris; if this matter has got  
out of the gyre then what would that mean for the oceanic  
circulation? A disturbance?)

Ulf

On 2011-08-10, at 13:40, Frank Muller-Karger wrote:

> 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
> 140 7th Ave. South
> St Petersburg, FL 33701
>
> Phones:
>   (727) 553-3335 Office
>   (727) 553-1186 Lab.
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> << carib at marine.usf.edu >>
> << http://imars.marine.usf.edu>>
> _________________________________
>
> 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
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Coral-List mailing list
>>> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
>>> http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>>
>> -- 
>> ****<><  *******<><  *******<><  *******<><  *******
>> 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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>>
>>
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