One of Florida’s most famous beaches has had an unwelcome guest for the past several years – smelly, brown seaweed – and now residents want something done about it.
Some Miami Beach residents are so fed up with the seaweed’s washing up ashore that they’re pressing Miami-Dade County officials to come up with a solution to remove the brown nuisance.
Tourists are also expressing their concerns with the smell.
“You can’t sit down. You can’t enjoy yourself because you’re sitting there wanting to hang out with your girlfriends, your friends,” said Brooke Pierce, who is visiting from Atlanta, “and all you can smell is this bad aroma. It’s terrible.”
Pierce said she is returning to the pool because of the terrible smell on the beach.
“It’s my first time in Miami Beach,” said Justine Paci from France, “and I thought the beach would be nicer, so I’m a bit disappointed.”
Paci said the smell reminded her of a rotten egg.
Some visitors had a more positive outlook on the situation.
“When you first get out here, it’s kind of intrusive,” said Sergo Ramos from Winter Park, Florida, “but if you pick your spot … It’s the ocean. It’s Miami Beach. It’s great.”
The Miami Herald reports the seaweed appearance is naturally occurring, but last year it showed up in record numbers.
Unlike toxic algae blooms or red tide, the seaweed doesn’t kill marine life, but swimmers find it annoying.
Scientists speculate the seaweed blooms on Miami Beach, and elsewhere in South America and the Gulf of Mexico, are connected to rising ocean temperatures and increased nutrients from fertilizers flowing into the ocean.
Miami Beach city officials are now discussing how to clean up the mess, but they said nothing can be done without a plan and funds.
“If we remove, it will require staging sites,” said a city spokesperson. “It will require a logistical approach in terms of what areas of the beach need to be closed off, what areas of the beach can be allowed to function, in order to have that amount of heavy equipment down here, and we have to have it funded, addressed and permitted by the state.”
The city hopes to begin the cleanup process by the end of 2019 or the beginning of 2020.
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