Remember the blob?
A new outlook released by the University of South Florida shows the smelly seaweed blob known as sargassum is smaller but will increase over the next few months.
The report states the seaweed blob decreased “from about 9 million metric tons in February to about 6.5 million metric tons in March.”
The decrease is due in part to cloud cover in the Atlantic and “weaker-than-usual” winds.
Researchers at USF said the decline is considered “an unusual anomaly,” and that the sargassum is expected to increase in the central Atlantic and “particularly in the eastern CS (Caribbean Sea) over the next few months.”
In late April or early May, the seaweed is expected to be in the western Caribbean in small or moderate amounts.
The outlook said the southeast coast of Florida and the Keys should be free of sargassum until late May.
The Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt, a mass of seaweed stretching from Africa to the Gulf of Mexico, caused quite a stink last year when scientists were concerned the belt would leave large amounts of seaweed on Florida beaches, leaving a smell of rotten eggs, caused by a toxic gas that can be a problem for people with respiratory issues.
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