A seagull walks over seaweed that washed ashore on 16 March 2023 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. A huge mass of sargassum seaweed formed in the Atlantic Ocean and headed for the Florida coastlines and shores throughout the Gulf of Mexico. The sargassum, a naturally occurring type of macroalgae, spans more than 5,000 miles. Photo: Joe Raedle / Getty Images
A seagull walks over seaweed that washed ashore on 16 March 2023 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. A huge mass of sargassum seaweed formed in the Atlantic Ocean and headed for the Florida coastlines and shores throughout the Gulf of Mexico. The sargassum, a naturally occurring type of macroalgae, spans more than 5,000 miles. Photo: Joe Raedle / Getty Images

By Richard Burkard
17 April 2023

(Knewz) – It sounds like a B-grade movie title: The approach of the 10-million pound blob.

Yet it’s real, and it’s forcing swimmers and owners of beachfront property in Florida to take action.

Knewz noted in late March that a giant mass of sargassum seaweed was spotted from space. It was in pieces, yet its sum is 5,000 mile wide – wider than the United States.

Fox Weather showed video over the weekend of one mat of seaweed in the Florida Keys. It washed ashore in Marathon, making swimming a challenge.

12 April 2023: A 5,000-mile-wide blob of floating sargassum seaweed has reached the Florida Keys. Superintendent of Parks for the City of Fort Lauderdale, Mark Almy, joined FOX Weather to talk about where all that seaweed goes once it reaches the coast. Video: FOX Weather

Parts of “The Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt,” as scientists call it, already reached parts of eastern Florida in February. Now the Yucatan Peninsula is next in its sights.

National Geographic reports that part of Mexico could see three feet of sargassum. The last time that happened in 2018, hotel reservations in the Cancun area dropped.

Seaweed encroaches on the coast of Le Gosier, a city on the French Caribbean Island of Guadeloupe, on 23 April 2018. The Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt will wash up on beaches throughout the Caribbean and Florida this spring and summer. Photo: Helene Valenzuela / AFP / Getty Images
Seaweed encroaches on the coast of Le Gosier, a city on the French Caribbean Island of Guadeloupe, on 23 April 2018. The Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt will wash up on beaches throughout the Caribbean and Florida this spring and summer. Photo: Helene Valenzuela / AFP / Getty Images

Jellyfish like seaweed, because it’s great breeding space. But hotel crews feel it must be removed, because beach vacationers like their sand white.

And sargassum isn’t great for your lungs. It creates hydrogen sulfide, a gas which can remind people of rotten eggs.

But some tourism promoters in the Florida panhandle say the stories about masses of seaweed are overblown.

“We’re still open for business,” David Bear with the Escambia County Tourism Development Council told the Pensacola News-Journal last week. “The beach is clear.”

The mass of seaweed is expected to float by southern Florida between now and June.

Amazing Scenes As Smelly Sargassum Seaweed Invades Florida Beach Forcing People Try To Swim In Water