How to Harness Mega Seaweed Blobs For a More Sustainable Future

On Oct. 7, 1492, Christopher Columbus, aboard his ship the Santa María, had been at a complete standstill for 21 days, trapped in a very strange sea which he would later name the Sargasso Sea—sargazo in Spanish meaning “gulfweed.” Today, the Sargasso Sea—an elliptical expanse in the southwestern Atlantic at the center of which lies Bermuda—is six times the size of France, and is the only sea in the world with no shoreline. There was great anxiety among Columbus’s sailors as their already heavily rationed food supplies dwindled the longer they remained stuck. Not the slightest wind, not the slightest wave, only this tangle of seaweed as far as the eye could see—it felt as though the Santa María was destined to stay bogged down in the golden mass forever. But finally, a light breeze came and helped bush them through towards the shores of the Bahamas. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] As far back as 2,000 years ago, people were warned of the impenetrable Sargasso Sea. What caused such a mass of seaweed likely remained a mystery to Columbus. But today we have a better picture of what’s causing this phenomenon. The incredible accumulation of algae over millions of square miles is linked to a vortex created by the convergence of three great marine currents of the Atlantic—this clockwise circulation, generated as the ocean currents collide with one another, is known as the North Atlantic gyre. That vortex...
Source: TIME: Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Books climate change Excerpt healthscienceclimate Oceans Sustainability Source Type: news