The giant sargassum flower that has been ravaging the state’s coastline has arrived in Palm Beach.
Rob Webber, the town’s coastal protection coordinator, said the foul-smelling brown and tan seaweed washed ashore in large quantities in recent weeks after a delayed approach earlier this spring.
He added that the entire island has been affected by the seaweed infestation, but historically the North End of the town faces greater impacts in the second half of the summer.
“Sargassum strandings are a seasonal phenomenon typically seen along the town’s coast in March and April, often continuing into the fall,” Webber told the Daily News. “As in late May 2022, we have seen even greater amounts of sargassum washing up on shore over the past few weeks. Rough sea conditions tend to wash sargassum off the shoreline. Sargassum tends to remain on the shore when sea conditions are calm.”
Related:‘New normal’: Palm Beach looks to deal with rising levels of Sargassum
Sargassum is a brown algae that floats on the surface of the sea in large quantities. It can be harmful to nesting sea turtles, eggs and hatchlings, and the town has stepped up efforts to remove them from local beaches.
At its April 3 meeting, the town council unanimously approved a contract worth $82,160 with Lake Worth Beach-based Beach Keeper, Inc., for work involving picking up trash and debris along the beach. A five-year project budget of $1 million was set. and rake them up.
The public beaches at Midtown and Phipps Marine Park are raked twice a week as part of the deal, and that frequency will increase as sargassum abundance increases.
The new contract also includes beach maintenance in the north end of town. Although these beaches are privately owned, the area is different from other beaches in town because cove piers tend to trap large amounts of sargassum in the area, says Public Works Director Paul Brasil. He told parliament in April.
“When seaweed comes in, it moves south to north and gets caught on the piers on the south side of the inlet,” he says. “We’ve seen them housed there in far worse conditions than the rest of town.”
Weber said the scraped sargassum will be buried in the wet sandy beach, as in previous years.
If sargassum abundance reaches levels that make it impossible to bury sargassum on wet beaches, the town could take alternative action through a pilot program conducted jointly with the Florida Department of Environmental Conservation and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. be.
As part of the plan, some of the seaweed should be placed adjacent to the pier of the cove and covered with a thin layer of sand, or deep pits should be dug into the dry beach within the town’s nutrient area, and sargassum under at least three pits. fill in sand feet.
Brazil said these actions would be considerate of nesting sea turtles. The sea turtle nesting season begins on March 1st and runs through October 31st.
Officials expect it will be a record year for sargassum strandings on Florida’s shores, and the University of South Florida’s April sargassum forecast confirms that. Seaweed build-up in the Gulf of Mexico was below peak levels, according to projections, although seaweed was found in the Caribbean Sea last month in greater abundance than in the previous April.
A monthly report for sargassum, which has 3 million tons of seaweed found in the Caribbean, shows its growth momentum peaking in June and then starting to fade. But last year, a large sargassum was washed up on the beach in late September, before it was washed off the beach by the impact of Hurricanes Ian and Nicole, Webber said.
Town officials are working with environmental consultants Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Group to work on a large-scale weekly sargassum tracking by satellite, Weber said.
As the sargassum migrates from the Caribbean into the gyre between the Florida Keys and Cuba, many more will be swept toward all of South Florida, including Palm Beach, he added.
“Sargassum is expected to continue to wash up all over Palm Beach Island and all of Palm Beach County,” he said. “The town of Palm Beach is not unique to Sargassum, as all beaches from the Florida Keys to all of Florida’s Atlantic coast are affected.”
Sargassum has never closed the town’s beaches, Weber said.Concerned swimmers should call Ocean Rescue (561-835-4693) or townofpalmbeach.com/232/BeachReports.
Jody Wagner is a journalist for the Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can contact her at the following address. jwagner@pbdailynews.com. Please support our journalism. Subscribe now.
