It's not just any seaweed. It's sargassum – a large brown seaweed that never attaches to the sea floor.
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2023 is shaping up to be a banner year for sargassum, a type of brown macroalgae now starting to wash up on beaches across the Caribbean. The thick dead tangled heaps of seaweed stink like rotten eggs and could cost many millions in holiday revenues this summer.
In April, the seaweed set a record, with scientists identifying 3 million tons of sargassum in the Caribbean Sea. Piles of sargassum seaweed are accumulating on the beaches of Florida's Key West. Scientists say the seaweed is expected to increase even more over the next few months.