USM Partners with University of the West Indies- Barbados to Address the Threat of Sargassum to Caribbean Waters, Islands
Mon, 04/11/2022 - 09:32am | By: Margaret Ann Macloud
The work of The University of 51逗奶 Mississippi (USM) marine research scientists
goes far beyond their 鈥渂ackyard鈥� in the Gulf of Mexico. Dr. Jim Franks, a fisheries
biologist, and Dr. Donald Johnson, a physical oceanographer, are both Senior Research
Scientists in USM鈥檚 Center for Fisheries Research and Development (CFRD). The Center
is working with the University of the West Indies (UWI) in Barbados to better understand
the ongoing threat of pelagic Sargassum to the Caribbean islands and on both sides of the tropical Atlantic.
Pelagic Sargassum is a floating marine macroalgae that occurs in the North Atlantic Ocean. It commonly occurs and is described by Franks as 鈥渁 critically important floating marine habit.鈥� But the vast amount of this algae that has shown up in the Caribbean Sea and along island shorelines since 2011 is overwhelming鈥攖hink, mounds on the shore that are six feet high at times鈥攁nd as it degrades, it creates an air quality issue for the people who live and visit there鈥攖he sulfurous material reeks of that distinctive rotten egg smell. Coral reefs, mangroves and beach nesting grounds are being overwhelmed. Tourism and fisheries, the dominant economic foundation of the Island nations, are seriously impacted. Local resorts across the region have hired full time workers solely to remove the mountains of Sargassum from their beaches.
鈥淚t鈥檚 an ongoing, dramatically invasive issue, impacting Caribbean island shorelines and the livelihoods of many island inhabitants, and our work is focused on working collaboratively with UWI marine scientists in an effort to understand why such an event is happening regionally and to help predict future occurrences,鈥� said Franks of the relationship between USM and UWI.
The research is being funded by a grant to USM from the UWI under the leadership of marine fisheries scientist Dr. Hazel Oxenford, a faculty member in the UWI Center for Resource Management and Environmental Studies. Dr. Shelly-Ann Cox and Dr. Oxenford鈥檚 graduate student, Kristie Alleyne, recently visited the CFRD at USM for the purpose of information exchange and workshop activities. Their university has been working with USM since the masses of Sargassum first appeared in their waters in overwhelming volumes in 2011, and now, under the guidance of CFRD鈥檚 Dr. Johnson, they鈥檙e preparing to do this work independently, using the combination of climate related research and fisheries management to keep Caribbean fisheries operational despite the extreme threats Sargassum poses to it.
鈥淥ur partnership with USM led to the development of the for the Eastern Caribbean, which provides medium-range (3-monthly) island-scale forecasts of Sargassum influxes,鈥� explained Dr. Cox. 鈥淚t also provides comment on sector-specific implications for tourism and fisheries stakeholders and includes links to the latest Sargassum publications and innovations. This bi-monthly product is widely distributed in the Caribbean and beyond. Our long overdue visit to the CFRD was very productive and has strengthened our partnership with our colleagues at USM. We now have a roadmap towards sustaining the production of the bulletin. In the future, we hope to collaborate on more transformative Sargassum and fisheries related research projects.鈥�
The USM and UWI researchers currently hypothesize that the cause of this event is attributed to several things, among them: increasing sea water temperature, introduction of nutrients into the region stimulating algae growth, and changing ocean currents. Predicting when it will arrive on various Caribbean shorelines is critical to the fisheries and tourism sectors and vital to the response planning processes undertaken by island authorities. Forecasting models, like how severe weather is tracked, are used in tracking the movements of the Sargassum at sea and determining when it will arrive in various regions.
that scientists used NASA satellite data to measure the length of the Sargassum invasion: 5,549 miles. Not only are arrivals of large masses of Sargassum along shorelines an overwhelming challenge, but so is the necessary clean-up and disposal of it. Concerted efforts are underway to find uses for the Sargassum once collected with some current level of success.
鈥淭he challenge is to extract probabilities of seasonal arrival from known observations of relatively persistent ocean currents,鈥� Johnson said. 鈥淎s we improve the observational data base and include measurements of Sargassum bloom and mortality, we hope to extend our understanding to yearly variations.鈥�
鈥淲e appreciate the opportunity to work collaboratively with our friends and colleagues at the University of the West Indies on this issue of such concern and importance within the Caribbean community, particularly, with regard to our study, the fishing community,鈥� Franks said.