A heavy flow of sargassum, commonly referred to as seaweed, is again washing ashore on the beaches of a number of Caribbean islands including Anguilla.
Drifting from the Atlantic’s Sargasso Sea, the smelly brown algae is affecting mainly the easterly to southerly coastline of Anguilla with heavy concentrations on Sandy Hill Beach, the Forest Beach and the Blowing Point Harbour area.
There have been some commendable attempts, especially at Sandy Hill Beach, by villagers, to remove the huge pile-up of seaweed which gives the appearance of a wide, but irregular, brown pasture covering the inshore waters. With the probability of trapped dead fish and other marine life, the dense waste has become a habitat for clusters of birds.
But even with the welcome and scenic bird life, the mass of decaying seaweed is both unsightly and intolerable with its stench spreading across a considerable distance downwind.
Some commentators are of the view that, despite the Herculean and almost impossible task to remove the cloggy seaweed, the situation will eventually take care of itself, as the sea flows in and recedes.
Notwithstanding this, a substantial amount of human and mechanical effort will be required to remove the seaweed which has already been thrown-up, and littering one of Anguilla’s popular beaches.
