Record amount of seaweed is choking shores in the Caribbean

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A record amount of seaweed is smothering Caribbean coasts from Puerto Rico to Barbados as tons of brown algae kill wildlife, choke the tourism industry and release toxic gases.

More than 24 million tons of sargassum blanketed the Atlantic in June, up from 18.8 million tons in May, according to a monthly report by the University of South Florida’s Optical Oceanography Lab. The reports says that is “a new historical record.”

An oceanography professor who helps produce the report says July saw no decrease of algae in the Caribbean Sea.

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