Sargassum Belt
D3. Marine environmental science, pollution and conservationDefinition
Pelagic Sargassum mat stretching across the tropical Atlantic.
The Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt is a recurring band of floating Sargassum seaweed stretching across the tropical Atlantic from West Africa to the Caribbean, first appearing at this scale in 2011 and now an annual phenomenon measured in millions of tonnes. Offshore it is valuable habitat, but massive coastal influxes rot on beaches, strip oxygen from nearshore water, and harm tourism and fisheries across the Caribbean and West Africa.