‘Floating rainforest' appears on Texas beach, photos show. Don't breathe too deep
Pinch your noses, beachgoers, there's a 'golden tide' upon the Texas coast and it's not as pleasant as it sounds.
It's also not particularly golden, based on photos shared by the Harte Research Institute, which show large swaths of a south Texas beach coated in brown and yellow plants.
'Massive amounts of sargassum seaweed are washing ashore along the Texas coast this week, piling up in thick mats along the beach,' the institute said in an April 30 Facebook post. 'While it may look (and smell) a bit overwhelming, this floating seaweed plays a vital role in our coast.'
'So if you're headed to the beach this week, expect a little seaweed between your toes,' the institute said.
The smell, an odor like rotten eggs, is the sargassum piles decomposing, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. As the seaweed breaks down, it releases hydrogen sulfide, 'which can cause respiratory irritation.'
But sargassum isn't so bad, according to experts, we're just seeing it at its worst.
It's somewhat unique among seaweed in that it's not rooted to the ocean floor, but instead floats like an island — and in this island, lots of sea creatures make their homes.
'Sargassum is like a floating rainforest — providing food, shelter, and nursery habitat for hundreds of species, from tiny shrimp to baby sea turtles. It's part of a natural cycle that brings life from the open ocean right to our shores,' the institute said.
'It's always amazing at how much life is within the seaweed, including crabs, shrimp, fish, sea slugs, and sea horses.'
Organizations such as NOAA track sargassum rafts like they're storms, which is fitting since a big enough raft can cause devastation depending on when and where it makes landfall.
'Massive amounts of Sargassum can form brown tides nearshore, smothering fauna and flora — including coral reefs,' NOAA says, adding that important man-made infrastructure such as water desalination plants can also be damaged.
'Sargassum also contains high levels of arsenic and other heavy metals, organic contaminants, and marine debris,' according to the organization, and it's not easy to get rid of. 'Cleanup options are limited and costly.'
Despite all this, the pros outweigh the cons, at least as far as sea life conservation is concerned, according to NOAA, as the organization deems sargassum as 'essential fish habitat' for several species.
The Harte Research Institute is in Corpus Christi, which is a roughly 140-mile drive southeast from San Antonio.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Yahoo
Friday the 13th solar storm could bring auroras to 18 US states this weekend
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Skywatchers in up to 18 U.S. states could witness auroras in the coming days as a "moderate" geomagnetic storm rocks Earth's magnetic field, starting on Friday (June 13). On Wednesday (June 11), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center issued an initial alert for a G2 (moderate) geomagnetic storm starting on Saturday (June 14). On Friday, the center released an updated warning that the storm could begin later the same day. The space weather event is predicted to end on Sunday (June 15) or Monday (June 16). The disturbance has the potential to rise to a G3 (strong) geomagnetic storm over the weekend, according to but this is not guaranteed. Some other outlets have reported that the storm could reach G4 (severe) status. However, these reports have likely arisen from confusion surrounding a statement from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, which was explaining what happened during a different G4 storm that occurred earlier this month, and the upcoming storm will not be anywhere near as intense. Geomagnetic storms are disturbances to Earth's magnetic field, or magnetosphere, triggered by fluctuations in the solar wind. They are normally caused by giant clouds of magnetized particles from erupting solar flares, known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs). However, in this case, the disturbance is being caused by a co-rotating interaction region — turbulence in the solar wind caused by fast-moving streams colliding with slower wind ahead of them — that originated from a large "coronal hole" on the solar surface. These disturbances can squeeze Earth's magnetosphere, potentially causing widespread aurora displays at unusually low latitudes. They can also cause temporary radio blackouts, damage power infrastructure on the ground and cause satellites to fall from the sky as Earth's atmosphere soaks up excess energy and expands. (Geomagnetic storms are classified using a scale that ranks their intensity from G1 (minor) to G5 (extreme) — which is very rare.) Related: The US isn't prepared for a big solar storm, exercise finds The 18 states that could see auroras starting tonight are Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, South Dakota, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Wyoming, according to Live Science's sister site The aurora could also be seen in the U.K. and parts of Europe. However, there is no guarantee that you will see auroras if you live in these areas, as your view may be obscured by cloudy weather, haze from wildfires or light pollution. RELATED STORIES —We are fast approaching the sun's 'battle zone' — and it could be even worse than solar maximum, experts warn —X-class solar flares hit a new record in 2024 and could spike further this year — but the sun isn't entirely to blame —A mysterious, 100-year solar cycle may have just restarted — and it could mean decades of dangerous space weather Solar activity has been high in recent years thanks to solar maximum — the most active phase of the sun's roughly 11-year cycle of activity, when our home star's magnetic field completely flips. This phase began in early 2024, much earlier than initially predicted, and is likely now coming to a close. But solar activity could remain high for several years to come. In May 2024, Earth experienced a G5 geomagnetic storm — the most powerful in 21 years, with some of the most widespread auroras in the last 500 years — after at least five different CMEs hit our planet in quick succession. This storm was so powerful that it caused tractors and other GPS-controlled machinery to dance from side to side across several U.S. states.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Hurricane forecasters will go without a key tool this season
For the past four years, a fleet of drone vessels has purposefully steered into the heart of hurricanes to gather information on a storm's wind speeds, wave heights and, critically, the complex transfer of heat and moisture between the ocean and the air right above it. These small boats from California-based company Saildrone also film harrowing footage from the ocean surface in the middle of nature's most powerful tempests—videos that are scientifically useful and have also gone viral, giving ordinary people windows into storms. Importantly, Saildrone vessels were being used by federal scientists to improve forecast and warning accuracy. But they won't be in forecasters' suite of tools this year. The company 'was unable to bid' on a contract for this season, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration spokesperson Keeley Belva told CNN. The reason why concerns the timing of NOAA's solicitation for this season's contract, according to a NOAA employee speaking on condition of anonymity. NOAA sent out its request for contract proposals too late, preventing Saildrone not just from bidding, but from pre-deploying its fleet to multiple launching ports on the Atlantic and Gulf Coast in time for hurricane season. It's another example among many of the ways the Trump administration has fumbled storm preparedness and response efforts as the season begins, leading to fears of less accurate hurricane projections compared to recent years. The Saildrone news came just as NOAA was roiled by staffing cuts through firings, early retirements and other incentives used to shrink the agency. Morale has plummeted, especially in the wake of the Trump administration's budget proposal that would eliminate the entire branch of the agency that does oceanic and atmospheric research, which could wipe out hurricane research activities if enacted. Even if it isn't, the Trump administration could use other means to implement such steep cuts. Belva did not provide details when asked for specifics about the issuance date for the proposals request and the reasons for the delay given the start of hurricane season on June 1. She cited 'ongoing' discussions with Saildrone about potential future deployments with NOAA. 'NOAA continues to explore the use of other uncrewed systems in meeting the agency's data needs within hard-to-access regions of tropical cyclones during the 2025 season,' Belva added. 'The agency is preparing for the use of uncrewed surface vehicle deployments with industry partners for the 2026 season.' NOAA will still field new technologies this season to gain a better understanding of how hurricanes work and how strong individual storms are, including ultra-high altitude weather balloons, said Joe Cione, the lead meteorologist for emerging technologies at the agency's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory. But all of these new tools are aerial assets, not ocean-based, as the saildrones were. With saildrones missing in action this hurricane season, meteorologists will lack continuous, direct observations of hurricanes' strongest winds near the surface of the ocean and temperatures of the warm water that fuels the storms. The agency will still use dropsondes—bundles of sensors that can measure the fierce winds as they fall through the storm after being dropped out of hurricane hunter aircraft. But they only offer a glimpse into a blip of time at a particular location in a storm, whereas the saildrones can loiter for hours or longer, providing rare observations from the lowest level of the atmosphere, said NOAA oceanographer Gregory Foltz. Saildrone observations were set to be piped directly into forecast models through newer, faster processes this year with the goal of boosting accuracy, Foltz said. In addition, forecasters at the National Hurricane Center would have been able to use saildrone data to better determine a storm's structure and intensity when issuing an advisory. The boats had another unexpected benefit: Their dizzying videos helped warn people in harm's way of a storm's ferocity, Foltz said. The videos may play a role in peoples' decisions to evacuate by showing how severe conditions are, he said. NOAA's aerial technology this season will hopefully bolster the data forecasters have to work with. During the next three weeks, NOAA's hurricane hunters will be conducting clear air tests of some of those new platforms. Cione, who focuses on identifying promising technologies for weather research and forecasting at the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, touted airborne drones like the Black Swift SØ drone. It weighs just three pounds and will be deployed into storms from the belly of a NOAA WP-3 hurricane hunter aircraft. These drones can fly low in a storm for extended periods, recording winds, temperatures and other parameters in the little-sampled lowest 1,500 feet of a hurricane. 'Our situational awareness goes way up,' Cione said, when readings come back from within this layer of air. Researchers will also be using tiny, light instrument packets known as 'Streamsondes' that can be dropped from an aircraft. These fall more slowly than the standard dropsondes and therefore gather more data. This year, Cione says, researchers may work to 'swarm' Streamsondes, or drop as many as 50 of them in a matter of minutes, into an area of interest within a storm to pinpoint what a hurricane's winds and air pressure are, for example. None of these aerial platforms will provide the clear video feeds that people may have become accustomed to from the saildrones the past four years, though, nor can they reliably measure winds and sea surface temperatures for long periods of time. Ultimately, Foltz said, researchers want to get aerial and ocean-based observations at the same time for a more three-dimensional glimpse into the inner workings of nature's most powerful storms. That includes uncrewed underwater drones collecting data beneath storms, he added. 'We need everything in the atmosphere and the ocean together,' Foltz said. 'That's a big goal of ours.' That won't happen this year, but assuming NOAA's research division still exists next year, it could get closer to being realized in 2026. 'You don't know how important something is until you take it away,' Foltz said of the saildrones' data contributions.
CNN
a day ago
- CNN
Hurricane forecasters will go without a key tool this season
For the past four years, a fleet of drone vessels has purposefully steered into the heart of hurricanes to gather information on a storm's wind speeds, wave heights and, critically, the complex transfer of heat and moisture between the ocean and the air right above it. These small boats from California-based company Saildrone also film harrowing footage from the ocean surface in the middle of nature's most powerful tempests—videos that are scientifically useful and have also gone viral, giving ordinary people windows into storms. Importantly, Saildrone vessels were being used by federal scientists to improve forecast and warning accuracy. But they won't be in forecasters' suite of tools this year. The company 'was unable to bid' on a contract for this season, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration spokesperson Keeley Belva told CNN. The reason why concerns the timing of NOAA's solicitation for this season's contract, according to a NOAA employee speaking on condition of anonymity. NOAA sent out its request for contract proposals too late, preventing Saildrone not just from bidding, but from pre-deploying its fleet to multiple launching ports on the Atlantic and Gulf Coast in time for hurricane season. It's another example among many of the ways the Trump administration has fumbled storm preparedness and response efforts as the season begins, leading to fears of less accurate hurricane projections compared to recent years. The Saildrone news came just as NOAA was roiled by staffing cuts through firings, early retirements and other incentives used to shrink the agency. Morale has plummeted, especially in the wake of the Trump administration's budget proposal that would eliminate the entire branch of the agency that does oceanic and atmospheric research, which could wipe out hurricane research activities if enacted. Even if it isn't, the Trump administration could use other means to implement such steep cuts. Belva did not provide details when asked for specifics about the issuance date for the proposals request and the reasons for the delay given the start of hurricane season on June 1. She cited 'ongoing' discussions with Saildrone about potential future deployments with NOAA. 'NOAA continues to explore the use of other uncrewed systems in meeting the agency's data needs within hard-to-access regions of tropical cyclones during the 2025 season,' Belva added. 'The agency is preparing for the use of uncrewed surface vehicle deployments with industry partners for the 2026 season.' NOAA will still field new technologies this season to gain a better understanding of how hurricanes work and how strong individual storms are, including ultra-high altitude weather balloons, said Joe Cione, the lead meteorologist for emerging technologies at the agency's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory. But all of these new tools are aerial assets, not ocean-based, as the saildrones were. With saildrones missing in action this hurricane season, meteorologists will lack continuous, direct observations of hurricanes' strongest winds near the surface of the ocean and temperatures of the warm water that fuels the storms. The agency will still use dropsondes—bundles of sensors that can measure the fierce winds as they fall through the storm after being dropped out of hurricane hunter aircraft. But they only offer a glimpse into a blip of time at a particular location in a storm, whereas the saildrones can loiter for hours or longer, providing rare observations from the lowest level of the atmosphere, said NOAA oceanographer Gregory Foltz. Saildrone observations were set to be piped directly into forecast models through newer, faster processes this year with the goal of boosting accuracy, Foltz said. In addition, forecasters at the National Hurricane Center would have been able to use saildrone data to better determine a storm's structure and intensity when issuing an advisory. The boats had another unexpected benefit: Their dizzying videos helped warn people in harm's way of a storm's ferocity, Foltz said. The videos may play a role in peoples' decisions to evacuate by showing how severe conditions are, he said. NOAA's aerial technology this season will hopefully bolster the data forecasters have to work with. During the next three weeks, NOAA's hurricane hunters will be conducting clear air tests of some of those new platforms. Cione, who focuses on identifying promising technologies for weather research and forecasting at the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, touted airborne drones like the Black Swift SØ drone. It weighs just three pounds and will be deployed into storms from the belly of a NOAA WP-3 hurricane hunter aircraft. These drones can fly low in a storm for extended periods, recording winds, temperatures and other parameters in the little-sampled lowest 1,500 feet of a hurricane. 'Our situational awareness goes way up,' Cione said, when readings come back from within this layer of air. Researchers will also be using tiny, light instrument packets known as 'Streamsondes' that can be dropped from an aircraft. These fall more slowly than the standard dropsondes and therefore gather more data. This year, Cione says, researchers may work to 'swarm' Streamsondes, or drop as many as 50 of them in a matter of minutes, into an area of interest within a storm to pinpoint what a hurricane's winds and air pressure are, for example. None of these aerial platforms will provide the clear video feeds that people may have become accustomed to from the saildrones the past four years, though, nor can they reliably measure winds and sea surface temperatures for long periods of time. Ultimately, Foltz said, researchers want to get aerial and ocean-based observations at the same time for a more three-dimensional glimpse into the inner workings of nature's most powerful storms. That includes uncrewed underwater drones collecting data beneath storms, he added. 'We need everything in the atmosphere and the ocean together,' Foltz said. 'That's a big goal of ours.' That won't happen this year, but assuming NOAA's research division still exists next year, it could get closer to being realized in 2026. 'You don't know how important something is until you take it away,' Foltz said of the saildrones' data contributions.
