(WSVN) - With summer just around the corner, it’s only a matter of time before seaweed washes up on shore and researchers are now developing a new tech tool to predict where it goes.
Higher resolution sensors are allowing university researchers like Brain Barnes to pinpoint Sargassum seaweed like never before.
“This is kind of where we’ve been for the last five years in our data products,” said Brain Barnes, Research Assistant Professor at the University of South Florida.
Sargassum seaweed, a common brown algae, grown in large masses and known for its rough texture and toothlike edge is typically found along Florida’s Atlantic coast and in the Caribbean Sea.
“If you pick it up, it’s kind of prickly. It feels like a bunch of grass,” said Barnes.
Sargassum floats in clusters on the water’s surface and never attaches to the seafloor.
“Instead of saying ‘Hey there’s a lot of sargassum out in the ocean or out in the Atlantic that may impact Florida in a month or so’, we can look and say that individual patch impact that particular beach in the coming days,” said Barnes
Barnes helped develop a Sargassum Watch System— tracking and forecasting where the algae’s headed through satellite images. The tracking part is already available, but now they are adding forecasting using newer models, going live with it as soon as next year.
“So this first image is essentially a simulation showing that first image is where sargassum is now and we can track over the next three and a half days where the sargassum will move,” said Barnes.
With sargassum floating on top of water, it’s become a problem in recent years for coastal ecosystems and nearby residents.
“It starts to decay. It’s got a really terrible rotten egg smell to it,” said Barnes.
Sargassum can impact tourism in the Sunshine State.
“It matters to any tourist area that may be impacted. The Florida Keys, for example, did a study of the impacts of a bad sargassum year with loss of tourism, to the cost of removing it and so forth and it would be around $20 million for one single event,” said Barnes.
That’s a hefty price tag, so knowing it’s travel path can help communities to prepare.
“And with that what we can do is, we can stage equipment to remove it quickly, or we can place some barriers that we can prevent it from hitting some of the more sensitive areas,” said Barnes.
Barnes said the new capabilities were made possible by a five-year grant provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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