A record amount of sargassum seaweed piled up across the Caribbean and surrounding regions in May — and scientists warn, even more is expected this month.
The brown, prickly algae is suffocating shorelines from Puerto Rico to Guyana, disrupting tourism, killing wildlife, and even releasing toxic gases. In Martinique, the fumes were so strong, one school was forced to shut down temporarily.
Researchers from the University of South Florida say the region saw 38 million metric tons of sargassum last month — the highest amount recorded since monitoring began in 2011. Brian Barnes, an assistant research professor involved in the study, says the previous record was just 22 million tons, set back in June 2022.
