Corpusfishing.com

[Big John]

Since we have questions every year about the Sargassum - ie, when does it go away, where does it come from, will it be thick this year, etc, I thought I would do some research and provide an educational piece. I learned a lot of interesting and useless facts, and came up with this.

Sargassum seaweed come from the Srgasso Sea, which is bordergless.





It is actually a hypersaline near-dead zone in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean who's only border's are the Gluf Stream on the West, the North Atlantic Current on the North, the Canary Trade Current on the East and to the South by the Equitorial Current.

The Sea is on average 3 miles deep, with extremely clear blue water. The Equitorial and Gulf Stream currents keep the water very warm year round. The currents in the sea are very calm allowing the floating Sargassum Seaweed to float on its surface. The sea averages around 3 million square miles in size, and the surface is almost completely covered in the seaweed.

Now imagine this, because of the prevailing currents, the whole mass of sargassum is moving very, very slowly in a clockwise motion (slow enough you would never notice you are actually moving), with the outer edges taking nearly 20 years to complete the journey!

The only real life with in the seaweed is all the same little critters you find in it as it washes ashore on the beaches. The seaweed is also harvested to make fertilizer.

Strangest fact, eels from all over the coastlines of Europe, the US and all the little islands in the Atlantic swim to the Sargasso Sea, breed and die every year! Freaky stuff! No wonder it smells so bad!

So why does it come to our Gulf of Mexico beaches - I mean it is along, long way away from us!

The changing seasons alter the force of the four major currents, as water cools and warms with the seasons. This actually allows the whole Sea of Sargasso to relocate South in the Winter and move back north in the summer!

As the warm tropical and subtropic currents cool in the winter, and the North Atlantic and Canary Trade currents strengthen, it drives the whole thing south. When we start warming back up the Gulf Stream and the Equitorial Currents strengthen pushing it back north. These strengthening currents are pushing on newer growth along the edges of the mat which has grown losser in weak winter currents. This rips huge pieces off, and drives it right into the gulf.

The same stearing currents are later responsible for taking tropical depressions and driving them into the gulf of Mexico.

Once the currents have all come close to their summer balance, the weaker plants along the edge are all ripped off, and the whole mass goes back to normal, with only some breaking off here or there.

Some theories as to why we receive more on some years than others:

Harsher winters push the mass further south than normal so more is in the path of the tropical currents when they come back in the spring.

The mass is thicker and thinner in places, and some years the thicker masses break loose.

The lack of major tropical storms traversing the Sea the summer ebfore, which tear up the mats some and reduce the amount of growth.

No one knows for sure as no one has actually studied it. All I can find are theories. these three seem the most plausible. Some are really, really out there.
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[surfdragon]

Great info there BIG JOHN any more info on the fertilizer part i got a bunch of plants and theres alot of weed at the beach right now.Maybe it has super powers?
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[Rudy]

The sargassum we get here is not the same sargassum used as fertilizer. You can use it but you have to use copius amounts of water to rinse it very thoroughly before it can be beneficial...not worth it. Then there is the smell.

[surfdragon]

Thanks RUDY FOR THE REPLY.
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[ironmanstan]

great story on the ocean weed john.as far as fertilizer i'd be willing to give it a try.because dale nelson , i know dead wrong dale.( our weather man )
said it was good fertilizer because of its high nitrogen content, he is also an avid gardener.so a good way to try it out would be to get a 5 gal. bucket full and spread it out on the grass somewhere and see if your grass gets greener in that spot. i bet that it will.
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[rabbit]

Was toying with the idea a couple weeks ago of getting a pickup load from the beach and putting in my garden.
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Fishing and Kayaking its a rough life but somebody has to do it.

[landlocked beachbum]

All sea weed makes great fertilizer when the salt is removed. Also, ALL of the species of sargassum are used for all the same puposes. Here's the proof if anyone cares.

http://www.surialink.com/HANDBOOK/Genera/browns/Sargassum/Sargassum.htm

Once again, the oceans prove to be an incredible resource for anything and everything.
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Dave


"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits". Albert Einstein

[The Trash Heap]

As I recall, the City rec'd its first cease-and-desist order re the beach grooming from the Corps in October 2005. I also reminded the City Council of that prior to the C-Sculptures event in 2006, just as I did again last month. If the city and county crews worked 7 days a week from April to August for 5 years, and were fined $10,000/day for doing so w/o a permit, that'd be way more than what was spent to do the grooming. And that's not counting the fines for destroying turtle eggs. No wonder the City won't let people park on the public beach for free, including at the base of the jetties where the Packery TIF was supposed to have paid for the construction of free parking lots.

The irony is that today's high winds and waves would have pushed the weed to the dunes for free.
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Caller.com Corpus Christi News and Information
Mother Nature aids in seaweed cleanup
Slight decrease seen in amount of plant washing up lately
By David Kassabian
Originally published 05:02 a.m., June 7, 2007
Updated 04:41 a.m., June 7, 2007
City of Corpus Christi work crews are starting to get a break from a constant stream of seaweed that has carpeted gulf beaches since spring break, a city official said.

Workers using front-end loaders and smaller machinery have been scraping the seaweed off the shore since it started washing up in mid-March and piling it against outer dunes, said Todd Jensen, beach operations supervisor for the city Parks and Recreation Department.

"When it first started coming in March ... we were inundated," Jensen said. "It stopped for two or three days and then it was like a plane flew by and dropped it all over the beach. It hasn't slowed down since until a few days ago."

A lull in seaweed washing up the past few days finally is giving crews a chance to better clear most beaches, he said.

The seaweed is Sargassum, which washes ashore a brownish-yellow color and turns the color of rust when it dries. It grows in the Gulf of Mexico and the Sargasso Sea off the coast of the United States south of Bermuda. Corpus Christi employs six full-time employees working seven days a week to scrape the seaweed off of the beach and pile it against the dunes.

In the past few weeks, the seaweed has nearly covered eight miles of city beaches.

"It usually comes in real heavy beginning in April and stops for a few weeks," Jensen said. "The seaweed's probably the worst it has been since the city annexed the beaches five years ago."

By digging about one-foot deep trenches along the high-tide line, workers have more flexibility in removing the seaweed because crews run out of places to put it along the dune line, Jensen said.

The city's seaweed removal has been restricted beyond that since September when it was notified by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that a permit is needed to dig into the beach and bury the seaweed, Jensen said. The permit previously had been required, but the city was unaware until it was notified, he said.

Officials expect to hear from the Corps of Engineers with an answer about the permit in two to four months following a process that includes review from several agencies and public comment period, Jensen said.

Giant heaps of seaweed, some more than 15 feet high, lined the dunes Wednesday afternoon. Large patches of sand provided an open space between the dunes and shore where seaweed stretched as much as 10 yards deep from the water line.

"This is the beach we like to come to but we don't stop by as much because of the seaweed," said Jesse Reyes, who was at the beach south of Bob Hall Pier on Wednesday afternoon with his 4-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter. "I can't remember when it's been this bad," said the lifelong Corpus Christi resident.

Jane Floyd, also a lifelong Corpus Christi resident, said she goes to the beach several times a week. Floyd said it has been bad this year but she remembers the seaweed being worse a few years ago.

"It's my nephew's first time out here and no matter what he wanted to play in the water -- we just stay where it's shallow and hope it gets better," said Floyd, 46, who was on the beach near the pier with her 13-year-old daughter and 6-year-old nephew from Dallas. "I'm sure there' a lot of people that come from other places and it scares them much more."

Despite the inundation, seaweed isn't expected to spoil the 30th Annual C-101 C-Sculptures competition set for Saturday at J.P. Luby Surf Park, said Ashley Torans, a spokeswoman for Clear Channel Radio. The sculptures are scheduled to be built away from the high tide line and the seaweed's outer grasp, she said.

Digging on the beach during Kemp's ridley sea turtle nesting season, which runs from early April to July, directly threatens the turtles, said Tony Amos, director of the Animal Rehabilitation Keep. In addition to being an eyesore, shoring up the dunes with seaweed may provide minimal extra protection during a hurricane because no vegetation binds it together, he added.

Jensen said there was no way to measure how much seaweed crews have removed so far. The city spends about $700,000 yearly on beach maintenance, which includes removing seaweed, Jensen said.

The seaweed usually stops washing up beginning the first week of August, he said.

"I couldn't even put a number or tonnage on it," he said. "It's as much as we can move every day."

Contact David Kassabian at 886-3778 or kassabiand@caller.com
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[Big John]

Johhny, this would be along your line of expertise, but I couldn't find the information online in print anywhere to verify.

As I understand it, sargassum seaweed is the primary builder of our barrier islands, catching mass amounts of sand each year to help slow the recedence of the beach front. Is that right?

If that is the case, the city is helping to further erode the beach each year by scraping the seaweed up to the dune line away from the waters edge where it is needed the most.
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[Uncle D]

John, that's what I heard too and I like the part about [quote]The permit previously had been required, but the city was unaware until it was notified, he said.

Officials expect to hear from the Corps of Engineers with an answer about the permit in two to four months following a process that includes review from several agencies and public comment period, Jensen said.

I guess the wax came out of the council ears.

[The Trash Heap]

Big John, sargassum is A primary contibutor to beach and dune growth, if not THE primary barier island builder. Let's just say it's the first thing that catches windblown sand on the middle portion of the beach, just a bit lower than the rooted vegetation, like the beach morning glory, which invades the beach from the landward side.

What can be said for sure is that sargassum is the primary importer of nutrients to the beach, adjacent water, AND the adjacent dune ecosystems. It's fertilizer for the whole barrier island.

Uncle D, the wax is still in the same ears, but now some of the ears have been replaced.
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[omaka]

Hey Big John,

Another Gee wiz info for you. The Sargassum grows on the Hawaiian shore reefs, tide pools, etc. and they are used for bait.

We collect them and use them to catch Unicorn Fish (Kala) and Rudder Fish (N'enue) which are a few popular eating fish among the local Hawaiians.

A float is use with a long shank hook as the mono is wind around a 6-7 in
long seaweed and the hook hidden and hooked at the end of the grass. This rig is cast at the edge of the reef, mix in with other floating seaweeds.
that reef fishes feed on.

Aloha Braddah!!

[Big John]

While these two look very similar (enough that that is where the name ceoms from), it is actually a different species of macroalgae. A big difference is that the algae actually grows attached, while our sargassum just floats. The other is that Hawaii Sargassum grows more like a bottlebrush or bush and compact in it habit, where ours is more viney and speading in habit.

http://www.hawaii.edu/reefalgae/invasive_algae/phaeo/sargassum_polyphyllum.htm



Too bad we can't catch fish worth eating here on our version of it!
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[landlocked beachbum]

In all of the time that man has been "civilized" there is not one project, be it a dam, a levee, channelizing rivers or "cleaning" beaches, that has ever turned out better OR LASTED as long as what mother nature has come up with. People never learn, ESPECIALLY the Army Corps of Engineers, with all due respect to them. Barrior islands and beaches were put there by the forces of nature and are always in flux, but left to themselves, the do just fine. Bring in people with bulldozers, dune buggies, dredges etc, and it's guaranteed to go downhill, usually faster than slower.
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Dave


"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits". Albert Einstein