Miami-Dade County Grapples with Record Sargassum Accumulation on Beaches
Miami-Dade County is experiencing unprecedented levels of sargassum, a type of floating brown algae, washing ashore on its 17 miles of beaches. Chris Bumpus, Chief of Conservation for Miami-Dade County's parks department, reports that 9,000 tons of seaweed were removed in July alone, marking a record for a single month. This surge is part of a larger phenomenon, with the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt, stretching from West Africa to the Gulf of Mexico, reaching its second-highest biomass on record this summer at 33.5 million tons. Scientists attribute the proliferation to several factors, including increased nitrogen and phosphorus runoff from major rivers like the Amazon and Mississippi, warmer ocean temperatures, and altered ocean circulation patterns, all exacerbated by climate change. 
