Every time we walk along a beach some ancient urge disturbs us so that we find ourselves shedding shoes and garments or scavenging among seaweed and whitened timbers like the homesick refugees of a long war. - Loren Eiseley
Sargassum seaweed has piled up on Blind Pass Beach in Englewood, Florida. Seaweed is piling up on the beaches of SWFL. It's called sargassum or aka "gulfweed" and it's typically found out in the deep blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Tropical Storm Debby not only rearranged our beaches with the storm erosion but she is now redecorating with a scratchy, matted carpet of sargassum seaweed. It don't smell so good either. Found mostly in the Atlantic Ocean and greatly concentrated in the Sargasso Sea, Sargassum seaweed's name originated from it's grape-like appearance which Portuguese sailor's called salgazo. Huge rafts of sargassum naturally float about a mile off the shores of our SWFL beaches. It acts as a transport system of sorts floating thousands of miles around the Gulf Stream current. Marine life off all kinds take refuge and find survival in sargassum weed. Sargassum is the destination of baby turtle hatchlings once they...