
Record-breaking seaweed bloom stretches from West Africa to Mexico
TAMPA, Fla. - A record-breaking mass of smelly seaweed stretching from West Africa to the Gulf of Mexico has been identified using satellite imagery. The seaweed bloom, called the great Atlantic Sargassum belt, is the largest ever of its kind, according to a new study. Researchers at the University of Southern Florida used satellite imagery to determine that the giant floating mass of seaweed is a whopping 8,850 kilometers (5,000 miles) long. Scientists first noticed that seaweed was spreading rapidly across the Atlantic and growing in mass in 2011. The seaweed explosion is also indicative of bigger problems, Wang said.