Speaker 1: Hey, are you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.
Speaker 1: My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and
Speaker 1: it's Saturday. Time to go into the vault for an
Speaker 1: older episode of the show. This one originally published April nine,
Speaker 1: and it's about seaweed. But you never knew seaweed could
Speaker 1: be so interesting and such a such a tangled web
Speaker 1: of mystery. Yeah, not just the seaweed itself, but the
Speaker 1: various organisms that call that seaweed home. Welcome to Stuff
Speaker 1: to Blow your Mind, the production of My Heart Radio. Hey,
Speaker 1: welcome to Stuff to Blow your mind. My name is
Speaker 1: Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. And today we're going
Speaker 1: to go into the wettest of the woods, the saltiest
Speaker 1: of the woods. Today. The woods are salty, dark and deep,
Speaker 1: and we have promises to keep and miles to float
Speaker 1: before we sleep, because we're going to be looking at
Speaker 1: a sort of jungle in the ocean. That's right. Uh.
Speaker 1: The ocean. Uh, it knows quite a mix of environments,
Speaker 1: from rich coral reefs to desolate deep sea waste, from
Speaker 1: sunlit shallows to hydrothermal vent heated depths, marine organisms, of
Speaker 1: course face numerous challenges, but the most basic demands boiled
Speaker 1: down to, you know, how not to end, how not
Speaker 1: to die, how to prolong. It's era to quote waiting
Speaker 1: for the barbarians, But this is especially true if you're
Speaker 1: small or your young organism. You're gonna need food and
Speaker 1: you're gonna need shelter. Uh, And there's always gonna be
Speaker 1: something trying to eat you. And for a number of organisms,
Speaker 1: this is provided by Sargassum, a genus of brown seaweed
Speaker 1: of sometimes brown, sometimes described as brown and orange um.
Speaker 1: As we'll discuss there a number of different species here,
Speaker 1: but uh, Sargassum thrives abundantly in the shan. It floats
Speaker 1: free of the ocean floor. It provides a buoyant, free
Speaker 1: floating environment that travels on the tides and offers food, refuge,
Speaker 1: breeding grounds, nurseries, hunting grounds, et cetera for a wide
Speaker 1: variety of organisms. So in this episode, we're going to
Speaker 1: discuss the sargassum organisms themselves, the environment that they offer,
Speaker 1: some of its benefactors, and also the problems posed by
Speaker 1: the so called Great Atlantic sargassum belt. Yeah, and that
Speaker 1: last point is interesting because I will say, when you
Speaker 1: think of of seaweed, you think of the macroalgay world,
Speaker 1: you don't usually think of it as something that is
Speaker 1: particularly economically devastating or or even economically all that significant.
Speaker 1: But but that that is not the case for sargassum. Yeah,
Speaker 1: as well, it's it's it's an interesting topic to explore
Speaker 1: because in its present form, it kind of cuts both ways.
Speaker 1: It's both vitally important to uh to so many organisms,
Speaker 1: and a number of organisms that are then important to
Speaker 1: us you know, various um uh, you know marine species
Speaker 1: that we depend on, various fish and so forth. But
Speaker 1: then on the other hand, uh, in an environment that
Speaker 1: is increasingly out of balance, uh, it also poses a threat,
Speaker 1: and it can pose quite a nuisance. So we'll get
Speaker 1: into all that. So what got you thinking about sarcassum
Speaker 1: for today, Rob, Well, it's because tomorrow's episode of Weird
Speaker 1: How Cinema will entail sargassum and casual mention of a
Speaker 1: few of the creatures, one creature in particular that calls
Speaker 1: at home. Um. Well, we'll try to save all of
Speaker 1: that for tomorrow's episode. But but yeah, that was probably
Speaker 1: the first place I heard of sargassum. The weed of deceit.
Speaker 1: I was wondering if we should announce the movie, but
Speaker 1: maybe we should just make everyone wait to find out
Speaker 1: they're going to be wondering. Wait, is it a Jaws
Speaker 1: clone where it's a big raft of seaweed instead of
Speaker 1: a shark. Is it like the Blair Witch Project, but
Speaker 1: instead of getting lost in the woods of Virginia or
Speaker 1: wherever it is, you get lost in the woods of
Speaker 1: the ocean of the Sargasso Sea. Well that the truth
Speaker 1: will just suddenly strike out at them and there'll be
Speaker 1: nothing they can do about it. Uh So, So tune
Speaker 1: in tomorrow if you wish for that. But but for
Speaker 1: this episode, we're going to focus on first on on sargassum,
Speaker 1: the the organism. So sargassum glimpsed in the ocean or
Speaker 1: on the beach, it might just look like a big
Speaker 1: heap of brown mess. But about closer look, you'll notice
Speaker 1: that it's composed of branches, leafy bits, and what looked
Speaker 1: like plump berries. But they're not berries, So don't don't
Speaker 1: pick them. Um. I mean, I guess you could pick them.
Speaker 1: But what they are actually are new maticists. These are
Speaker 1: air bubbles. Um. Uh, they are part of the organism
Speaker 1: held that you know, in in these little cysts that
Speaker 1: help it excel at floating around, right, Because of course,
Speaker 1: there are different types of seaweed, and some types of
Speaker 1: seaweed spend their life, you know, submerged in the water,
Speaker 1: and they might be anchored down by a type of
Speaker 1: organ known as a hold fast that is somewhat analogous
Speaker 1: to like the root ball of a tree that holds it,
Speaker 1: except in the case of seaweed, it would hold clumps
Speaker 1: of seaweed to the ocean floor. Not entirely analogous, I mean,
Speaker 1: for many reasons, one of which is that uh, is
Speaker 1: that the seaweed that we're talking about today is technically
Speaker 1: not even a plant. It is a type of macroalgae,
Speaker 1: which will explain more about. But in the case of sargassum, Uh,
Speaker 1: there are types of sargassum that are free floating organisms
Speaker 1: that spend much or all of their lives just floating
Speaker 1: on top of the water to have good access to sunlight,
Speaker 1: of course, which they need in order to make their
Speaker 1: food to survive. But they've got to just sit there
Speaker 1: and float on the top, and they're actually not even
Speaker 1: anchored to the bottom at all, They just float out
Speaker 1: in the open ocean. And I do just want to
Speaker 1: stress again that the genus is sargassum, and there I
Speaker 1: believe about a hundred and fifty species um all sargassum. Uh.
Speaker 1: The hundred and fifty number, I got that from the
Speaker 1: Ocean Foundation, though curiously I saw some higher numbers out
Speaker 1: there as well. I don't know if those were accurate.
Speaker 1: I'm sticking with the one fifty, right. So there are
Speaker 1: different kinds that you'll find, especially in different parts of
Speaker 1: the oceans around the world, right. Uh. And we'll be
Speaker 1: talking about some key ones though, that are the most abundant,
Speaker 1: or at least in the the part of the world
Speaker 1: that we're gonna be discussing here. So, as I mentioned,
Speaker 1: sargassum is a brown macro algae, So it is different
Speaker 1: than plants. And how exactly is it different than plants? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think this is also important to stress because if
Speaker 1: you don't think much about seaweed, you might just you know,
Speaker 1: you know, you might just assume, well, right, it's some
Speaker 1: sort of plant that grows in the water. Um. And
Speaker 1: I think that you might be reasonable to make that
Speaker 1: assumption just based on its physical appearance, and certainly the
Speaker 1: word seaweed um weeds are plants, yeah, and and seaweed
Speaker 1: is also used informally a lot of times to describe
Speaker 1: both the algae and some plant organisms. But the algae
Speaker 1: are protests, meaning they are uh eukaryotic organisms, which are
Speaker 1: not animals plants or fun guy um so land plants
Speaker 1: for their part, they likely derived from freshwater algae about
Speaker 1: five million years ago. An algae is, of course, when
Speaker 1: we look at the just the root of the word um,
Speaker 1: they're synonymous with seaweed, as alga is the Latin for seaweed. Okay,
Speaker 1: so if you if you just think about algae like
Speaker 1: the most I would say, if I was to go
Speaker 1: on my own personal life experience, when I hear the
Speaker 1: word algae by itself, what I tend to think of
Speaker 1: is kind of green pond scum, you know, kind of
Speaker 1: very like a something floating on top of a stagnant
Speaker 1: freshwater body like a pond or a lake, that is
Speaker 1: made of tiny little fibers that just kind of clumped together,
Speaker 1: doesn't have any recognizable macro structures the way larger plants
Speaker 1: like like flowers or trees would. But that is not
Speaker 1: true of all kinds of algae. These macro algaees that
Speaker 1: we see in these types of seaweed, they have more
Speaker 1: complex structures that are more like the structures of land plants.
Speaker 1: So they might have something that is akin to the
Speaker 1: stalk of a land plant and something that is akin
Speaker 1: to the leaves. In these cases, they would be algal fronds. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: so yeah, again they look very plant like. You can
Speaker 1: easily look at them and say, oh, they're they'll leave,
Speaker 1: they're the berries. But uh, at any rate, again, a
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty different species of sargassum. Uh, Though we're
Speaker 1: generally gonna be talking about specific dominant species within given regions.
Speaker 1: For instance, the two varieties found most often in the
Speaker 1: Caribbean are Sargassum Natan's and Sargassum fluitans um. I don't
Speaker 1: think it will be necessary to remember that, but just
Speaker 1: know that again, we're gonna we're probably gonna refer to
Speaker 1: sargassum a lot, just generally, but we're gonna ultimately be
Speaker 1: dealing with specific species that are dominant within a given
Speaker 1: a region. So sargassum reproduces a sexually through fragmentation, a
Speaker 1: form of a sexual reproduction in which and split into fragments,
Speaker 1: and those fragments then become adults. And furthermore, the Caribbean
Speaker 1: sargasm species in particular, and some of these other varieties
Speaker 1: that are important are hollow pelagic. That means that they
Speaker 1: not only float freely on the ocean, but they also
Speaker 1: reproduce vegetatively on the high seas. So they're they're completely
Speaker 1: in international waters, you know, they're they're they're they're a
Speaker 1: monkey knife fight that the land has no control over.
Speaker 1: So yeah, but that would mean that they don't they
Speaker 1: can do their whole life cycle without like anchoring to
Speaker 1: the bottom at any point or returning to shore or
Speaker 1: anything like that. Right, And that's gonna that's gonna become
Speaker 1: important later on. It get it really gets in ultimately
Speaker 1: the idea of sargassum being the weed of the seed,
Speaker 1: so it grows abundantly in the ocean, where it forms
Speaker 1: vast floating rafts, as it's sometimes called. Though um, I
Speaker 1: don't think these are rafts in the sense that you could,
Speaker 1: you know, be a shipwrecked sailor at sea and climb
Speaker 1: on top of it or hoist a sale on it,
Speaker 1: but essentially just big rafts big floating chunks of of
Speaker 1: the sargassum, all tingled together, stretching in some cases for miles,
Speaker 1: and these form and areas of converging surface currents, and
Speaker 1: in doing so they create a vital environment like we
Speaker 1: alluded to earlier. But on top of the environment, the
Speaker 1: organism itself provides food. According to the Ocean Foundation, sargassum
Speaker 1: contributes and estimated six of the total primary production in
Speaker 1: the upper one meter of the water column. Okay, so
Speaker 1: that would refer to like different different stages of the
Speaker 1: food chains. So you've got the primary producers that are
Speaker 1: familiar to us. These are generally photosynthesizing organisms, like like
Speaker 1: plants on land, you know that absorbs sunlight to power
Speaker 1: the chemical reactions that make their bodies. And then you've
Speaker 1: got the secondary uh, characters on the food chain that
Speaker 1: eat the primary producers. You know that that eat plants
Speaker 1: to survive. The same thing is true in the ocean.
Speaker 1: So you've got these primary producers that are at least
Speaker 1: near the top of the water column are going to
Speaker 1: be basing their their energy cycle on sunlight to to
Speaker 1: produce these molecules that make up their body that that
Speaker 1: in turn are eaten by other organisms that are the
Speaker 1: sort of the secondary organisms in that food chain. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's like you said at the very beginning, this
Speaker 1: is the forest that we're discussing. Like in a way,
Speaker 1: don't think of the ocean itself as the forest. Think
Speaker 1: of the think of the sargassum. These are these rafts
Speaker 1: of sargassum as the forest. Because the ocean, as we've
Speaker 1: discussed in the show before, the ocean can be a wasteland.
Speaker 1: The ocean can be a desert and um and in
Speaker 1: that desert, the sargassum can be the oasis um. It
Speaker 1: serves as a place of refuge for various creatures as
Speaker 1: well as again breeding grounds nurseries. In fact, it's the
Speaker 1: primary nursery for a number of important to human to humans,
Speaker 1: especially fish species like the Mai mai. And given all
Speaker 1: of this activity that's going on at the various creatures
Speaker 1: that call it home, sometimes exclusively uh their home, it's
Speaker 1: also prime stalking zone for many marine predators, So both
Speaker 1: sargasm predators who live there and have evolved a thrive
Speaker 1: in its environment, but also general marine apex predators that
Speaker 1: are drawn in by the by by the riches there
Speaker 1: by the biodiversity. Uh. Let's see if a few other
Speaker 1: just sort of general um facts about sargassum. It can
Speaker 1: survive wide temperature and salinity variances, and after about a year,
Speaker 1: those new maticists that help it to remain buoyant, uh,
Speaker 1: they lose their buoyancy and bits of sargassum will then
Speaker 1: sink to the sea floor, where it will actually end
Speaker 1: up providing carbon for various deep sea creatures. So it's
Speaker 1: not only an important energy source for the sunlit shallow
Speaker 1: regions of the sea, but for the dark depths as well.
Speaker 1: I guess, serving as kind of like that that nutrient
Speaker 1: rainfall that we've talked about before that rains upon the
Speaker 1: deep and indeed, when it washes up on the shore uh,
Speaker 1: I guess for for the most part we're talking about it,
Speaker 1: if it's washing up in manageable quantities um, it can
Speaker 1: actually nourish beaches, uh, can prevent sand from blowing away. Uh.
Speaker 1: And when it washes up, it also serves as a
Speaker 1: food source for various coastal species. UM. And not only
Speaker 1: is it generally not harmful to humans, it's actually edible.
Speaker 1: More on that in a bit. UH. There are also
Speaker 1: possible biofuel and pharmaceutical possibilities for sargassum um. We'll get
Speaker 1: into some of the drawbacks later on, but but one
Speaker 1: of the interesting things here is that like the idea
Speaker 1: of just sargassum piling up on the beach again in
Speaker 1: manageable quality quant quantities, it does bring to mind that
Speaker 1: sort of um contest, that disagreement at times over what
Speaker 1: constitutes the beach or what the beach should look like.
Speaker 1: You know, should there be anything on the beach other
Speaker 1: than um humans strolling and enjoying their vacation. You know? Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, some of the some of the really beautiful
Speaker 1: beaches out there, a lot of times they are manicured,
Speaker 1: things like seaweed are collected regularly in order to have
Speaker 1: that sort of Hollywood beach presented. Uh. And in many cases,
Speaker 1: as an argument to me, may then no debris would
Speaker 1: be on the beach naturally, and it in the right
Speaker 1: quantities it can be important to keeping the sand from
Speaker 1: washing away, keeping the beach from eroding, etcetera. I can
Speaker 1: see the point of view that would say I'm okay
Speaker 1: with the beach that has natural debris but not unmanageable
Speaker 1: amounts of natural debris or artificial debris. I mean you
Speaker 1: certainly you know you don't want too many beer cans.
Speaker 1: That's going to kind of ruin your beach experience. Yeah,
Speaker 1: nobody wants to step on a beer can on the beach,
Speaker 1: But likewise, nobody really wants to have to walk over
Speaker 1: a tin foot high mound of sargassum like dead, rotting seaweed.
Speaker 1: Right right now, Um, we're gonna be getting into the
Speaker 1: history of humanities awareness and understanding of sargassum here. And
Speaker 1: the first bit I want to share is that you know,
Speaker 1: certainly early sailors described sargassum mats, and one individual in particular,
Speaker 1: Christopher Columbus. Uh, this was in when abundant sargas. Some
Speaker 1: fooled Columbus into thinking he was approaching land. And I
Speaker 1: couldn't find anything that really defined this for me. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you did, Joe, but I assume this
Speaker 1: is what the term the weed of Deceit refers to
Speaker 1: the idea that you might encounter sargassum mats out at
Speaker 1: sea and you could make the same air that Columbus
Speaker 1: made and think, oh, look at all the seaweed. Uh,
Speaker 1: there's it's thick. It's everywhere. We must be really close
Speaker 1: to land at this point. Sure, I don't know that
Speaker 1: that's where the name comes from, but that makes sense. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So on September Columbus Road, and this is of course
Speaker 1: translated uh quote, we have begun to see large patches
Speaker 1: of yellowish green weed which seems to have been torn
Speaker 1: away from some islander. Reef. I know better because I
Speaker 1: make the mainland to be farther on. And then on
Speaker 1: September I saw a great deal of weed today from
Speaker 1: rocks that lie to the west. I take this to
Speaker 1: mean we are near land. The weed resembles a grass,
Speaker 1: except that it has long stalks and shoots and is
Speaker 1: loaded with fruit like the like the mastic tree. Um
Speaker 1: so h yeah, I guess. On the on September six,
Speaker 1: it sounds like he was like, no, you can't fool me,
Speaker 1: We're not that close to land. But on September sevent
Speaker 1: he said, nope, we are close to land. Look at
Speaker 1: all this seaweed. I had to look up with the
Speaker 1: mastic tree is because I didn't know, but it's the
Speaker 1: but it's known as Pistachia lentiscus. Ah. Yeah, I looked
Speaker 1: up a picture of it as well, and I do
Speaker 1: see some some prominent little round fruits berries that, yeah,
Speaker 1: the little berries that I assume that's that's what he
Speaker 1: was comparing to the what what are actually newmaticists. Yeah,
Speaker 1: as we mentioned earlier, the neumatosists or these little tiny
Speaker 1: berry shaped gas bladders that helped the seaweed float. But
Speaker 1: in this case, yeah, it looks kind of like these
Speaker 1: berries in a tree that would have been familiar to Columbus.
Speaker 1: I think the looking at the mastic tree apparently is
Speaker 1: useful for its resin. So a special note is the
Speaker 1: Sargasso Sea. This is a truly vast patch of sargassum.
Speaker 1: According to the Ocean Foundation, the Sargasso Sea is sometimes
Speaker 1: referred to as the Atlantic Golden Rainforest. Uh and the
Speaker 1: islands quote unquote uh in the Sargasso Sea can be
Speaker 1: acres across, while the regions they occupy can stretch for
Speaker 1: miles right now. The Sargasso Sea is interesting because it
Speaker 1: is the only real sea in the world that doesn't
Speaker 1: have any land boundaries. The Sargasso Sea is a sea
Speaker 1: within an ocean. It's uh, this patch in the middle
Speaker 1: of the Northern Atlantic. Basically, it's just a large patch.
Speaker 1: If you were to look at the eastern coast of
Speaker 1: the United States, UH and you know in the Caribbean
Speaker 1: maybe with the bottom edge down around like Cuba and
Speaker 1: UH in Puerto Rico, and then going up along the
Speaker 1: the coast of North America up towards Newfoundland, and then
Speaker 1: you just extend out east from there, there's this big
Speaker 1: patch in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean which is
Speaker 1: known as the Sargas So see now we should be
Speaker 1: clear that it is not like blanket covered in sargassum seaweed,
Speaker 1: but there are It is known for having large rafts
Speaker 1: of sargassum seaweed within it, and the Sargasso Sea is
Speaker 1: interesting in a number of ways. One thing about it
Speaker 1: is it's known for having uh for being a place
Speaker 1: where ships can easily become be calmed, and this is
Speaker 1: a a risk that people who are not very familiar
Speaker 1: with sea voyages might not think about very often. But
Speaker 1: back in the days of sailing, one thing that was
Speaker 1: really dangerous is if the winds die down and you
Speaker 1: can't say, you know, there's nothing to propel your ship
Speaker 1: in the direction where it needs to go. All throughout
Speaker 1: the the Atlantic around the Sargasso sea, there tend to
Speaker 1: be these wind currents, you know, they're there are winds
Speaker 1: that will blow you UH, that will blow you east
Speaker 1: to west, down from the from the coast of Africa,
Speaker 1: down towards UH, towards the Caribbean, and towards the northern
Speaker 1: coast of South America. And then there are winds and
Speaker 1: and currents in the ocean that lead up north along
Speaker 1: the east coast of North America. And then if you
Speaker 1: go up north from there, there are winds and currents
Speaker 1: that will lead you back towards the east from the west.
Speaker 1: So essentially you create this box in the middle of
Speaker 1: the North Atlantic that is surrounded by currents that go
Speaker 1: in a circle around it. And this is often known
Speaker 1: as the North Atlantic gyre. Now, anyone who has ever watched,
Speaker 1: you know, any number of of sailing movies or TV shows,
Speaker 1: or any TV show that includes like a a voyage
Speaker 1: by sail across the ocean, This is a This is
Speaker 1: almost a standard bottle episode right here where where suddenly
Speaker 1: the ship UH is in a is in a region
Speaker 1: where there's just no no wind at all, nothing could
Speaker 1: propel them, and everybody just sets around and gets like
Speaker 1: superstitious and Uh, and a little bit crazy until the
Speaker 1: wind picks back up and saves everybody right. And you
Speaker 1: can imagine, like if you actually were traveling across the
Speaker 1: Atlantic and you didn't know what you were, what you
Speaker 1: were going to see, or what was going to be
Speaker 1: out there. Maybe you'd heard some tales of sea monsters.
Speaker 1: Who knows. You get into an area where there is
Speaker 1: less wind than you're used to than when you traveled
Speaker 1: into the area, you are suddenly be calmed, It becomes
Speaker 1: hard to travel, and you're just kind of stuck there
Speaker 1: in the water, and then you start seeing these weird
Speaker 1: rafts floating around in the middle of the ocean towards you.
Speaker 1: I can imagine that's pretty odd, And in fact, we
Speaker 1: maybe don't have to imagine, because there are some historical
Speaker 1: sources that that may well be referring to this. I
Speaker 1: guess it's debatable whether they're referring to this or something else.
Speaker 1: But I wanted to look at the question how long
Speaker 1: has the Sargasso Sea been written about? Uh. It gets
Speaker 1: its current name from Portuguese sailors. I believe of like
Speaker 1: you know, the early modern period, or actually I think
Speaker 1: before that, from like the fifteenth century. But but I
Speaker 1: was looking around to see how far back written accounts
Speaker 1: of the Sargasso c go. And I found an interesting,
Speaker 1: possibly applicable bit of history in a book by the
Speaker 1: British archaeologist and Oxford professor Sir Barry Cunliffe, uh And
Speaker 1: the book is called on the Ocean, the Mediterranean and
Speaker 1: Atlantic from Prehistory to a D fIF hundred from Oxford
Speaker 1: University Press in And this is in a chapter where
Speaker 1: Cunliffe is writing about records of exploration west of the
Speaker 1: Pillars of Heracles. So the Pillars of Heracles today are
Speaker 1: understood to refer to the Strait of Gibraltar, that gap
Speaker 1: between between Morocco and the Iberian Peninsula, where you can
Speaker 1: just go through this narrow passage to get out of
Speaker 1: the Mediterranean Sea and into the broad Atlantic Ocean. And
Speaker 1: so he's writing about the exploration beyond this point out
Speaker 1: to the west by the ancient cultures of North Africa,
Speaker 1: Europe and Central Asia. And for for most of these cultures,
Speaker 1: the Mediterranean Sea was of course their bread and butter.
Speaker 1: I mean the sea, even the Mediterranean Sea has has
Speaker 1: plenty of dangers and mysteries to it. But sea voyages
Speaker 1: within this region where you know, we're well understood for
Speaker 1: for trade and and exploration and warfare and fishing and
Speaker 1: all that. But sea voyages west into the Atlantic Ocean
Speaker 1: or another story. And and so you get plenty of
Speaker 1: tales and say Greek thought of Greek mythology about islands
Speaker 1: that maybe lay out to the west of of the
Speaker 1: Pillars of Hercules, way out there in the ocean, that
Speaker 1: that is mostly unexplored by your people. Most of the
Speaker 1: early explorers who passed west of Gibraltar did so in
Speaker 1: order to travel along the coast to the north or south.
Speaker 1: So this would be traveling up along the coast of
Speaker 1: the Iberian Peninsula, uh to form these ports along places
Speaker 1: like Cadiz that became a Phoenician port, or south along
Speaker 1: the coast of Africa. The Phoenicians and the Greeks did
Speaker 1: this to various extents, but the vast and presumably mostly
Speaker 1: empty Atlantic Ocean was not not among everybody, but widely
Speaker 1: assumed in ancient times to be a place of mystery
Speaker 1: and danger, especially by Greek authors. And Kunlift gives the
Speaker 1: example of the ancient Greek poet Pindar, who was writing
Speaker 1: in the early fifth century b c e. Uh And so,
Speaker 1: to quote from Kunliffe here describing the Pillars of Heracles,
Speaker 1: situated at the western extremity of the known world, far
Speaker 1: from home, he advises, quote, what lies beyond cannot be
Speaker 1: trodden by the wise or the unwise. One cannot cross
Speaker 1: from Ghadeer towards the dark west. Turn again the sails
Speaker 1: towards the dry land of Europe. The dark west. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean this vast, stormy ocean. You you don't know,
Speaker 1: if you know you travel out on it, Like would
Speaker 1: would you even reach land if you kept sailing? I
Speaker 1: mean it was not known. However, Kunliffe writes that Phoenician
Speaker 1: sailors were more adventurous in general in pushing westward uh
Speaker 1: and about around the year six hundred b c E.
Speaker 1: A Phoenician expedition sponsored by the pharaoh Necho the second
Speaker 1: had been reported to have circumnavigated after and though we
Speaker 1: don't have the original sources for the account that I'm
Speaker 1: about to describe, there are later Roman quotations of the
Speaker 1: accounts of Phoenician sailors possibly pushing further west into the
Speaker 1: Atlantic in exploration. And one of these notable sailors was
Speaker 1: a Carthaginian navigator named him Ilco. That's h I M
Speaker 1: I l c O, who lived probably sometime in the
Speaker 1: fifth century b c E. Now, the Carthaginians were an
Speaker 1: ancient civilization that was based along the coast of North Africa.
Speaker 1: I think their their capital was in modern day Tunisia.
Speaker 1: But who expanded too much of the ancient Mediterranean? And
Speaker 1: then here I'm going to read from Cunliffe as he
Speaker 1: introduces and quotes another ancient source for for knowledge about Himilco.
Speaker 1: So Himilco quote, whose report published long ago in the
Speaker 1: Secret Annals of the Carthaginians, is selectively quoted in a
Speaker 1: grossly pretentious poem compiled by our Roman administrator Rufus Festus A.
Speaker 1: Viennas in the fourth century a d. A few lines
Speaker 1: of his Aura maritima will suffice to give the flavor.
Speaker 1: And then this quotes lines three four. To the west
Speaker 1: of these pillars, Himilco reports that the swell is boundless,
Speaker 1: the sea extends widely the salt water streaks. Fourth, no
Speaker 1: one has approached these waters. No one has brought his
Speaker 1: keel into that sea, because there are no propelling breezes
Speaker 1: at sea, and no breath of Heaven's air aids the ship. Hence,
Speaker 1: because the mist cloaks the air with a kind of garment,
Speaker 1: a cloud always holds the swell and persists throughout the
Speaker 1: humid day. And so that's describing possibly some of the
Speaker 1: becalmed area of the North Atlantic, with like within the
Speaker 1: Gyre region that we talked about before, you know, surrounded
Speaker 1: by the currents, but is very often very still in
Speaker 1: that middle area that overlaps with the Sargasso Sea. But
Speaker 1: then Cunliff goes on to describe further how Aviennas quotes
Speaker 1: from Himilco to describe his voyage. Uh Cunliffe writes elsewhere
Speaker 1: he talks of monsters of the deep and beasts who
Speaker 1: swim amid the slow and sluggish crawling ships, and again
Speaker 1: great fear of monsters stalks the deep when the wind falls,
Speaker 1: the sluggish liquid of the lazy sea is at a standstill,
Speaker 1: while thick seaweed often tops the sea, and the tide
Speaker 1: is hindered by the marshy rack. The marshy rack, oh
Speaker 1: yeah um. And Cunliff also says Himilko was evidently not
Speaker 1: enamored of his encounter with the ocean. Perhaps perhaps his
Speaker 1: vessel was drawn south into the dull drums and reach
Speaker 1: the Sargasso Sea, as some commentators have suggested, Or perhaps
Speaker 1: he reported in this dispiriting way simply to aggrandize his
Speaker 1: own achievement and to deter others. Another possibility is that
Speaker 1: his original report was embroid loitered by a Viennas Uh.
Speaker 1: So we don't know exactly what he's describing here and
Speaker 1: if what he's describing is real, especially since we're only
Speaker 1: getting it quoted by a secondary source and we don't
Speaker 1: have the original source. But of course it is true.
Speaker 1: There's the danger of the doldrums, the calm part of
Speaker 1: the Atlantic, where you won't have winds to propel your
Speaker 1: your sales, so you can very well get trapped there.
Speaker 1: That could well overlap with large stretches of seaweed, the
Speaker 1: Sargassum seaweed that you would find in the Sargasso Sea.
Speaker 1: So one possible interpretation of what we're getting here is
Speaker 1: that this ancient Carthaginian sailor him Ilco actually sailed to
Speaker 1: the Sargasso Sea, survived, returned to Carthage eventually, and you know,
Speaker 1: lived to tell the tale. But again, it's worth stressing
Speaker 1: that modern some modern scholars are are doubtful. It's hard
Speaker 1: to know for sure, but some details line up if
Speaker 1: they're accurate. You get these reports about the marshy rack
Speaker 1: of seaweed coinciding with the Doldrums. It it lines up
Speaker 1: in a kind of interesting way. And then finally, of course,
Speaker 1: the mention of sea monsters right there, I wonder if
Speaker 1: it's possible to mistake the shadow of a huge floating
Speaker 1: raft of sargassum for a sea monster stalking the deep. Again,
Speaker 1: I don't know, but it strikes me as possible. Yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 1: And well, once you get into discussing sea monsters, of course,
Speaker 1: as we've we've explored in the show before, especially looking
Speaker 1: at the work of the check then douser Um, Yeah,
Speaker 1: on sea monsters. I believe he pointed out in his
Speaker 1: book that you know, at times sea monsters are a
Speaker 1: manifestation of u uh, certainly of of second and third
Speaker 1: hand accounts of of actual organisms. Other times their products
Speaker 1: of the mind. Sometimes they're products of of economic or
Speaker 1: political forces. So they're the whole host of reasons uh
Speaker 1: to to speak the word of the name of the
Speaker 1: sea monster. But that's certainly the Yeah, the doldrums that
Speaker 1: seemed to be described here, and then the uh, the
Speaker 1: the the rack, the muck, the seaweed here this does
Speaker 1: sound a lot like the descriptions modern description is of
Speaker 1: the s O c oh. And sorry, there's one thing
Speaker 1: I didn't clarify, but just to avoid confusion, because it's
Speaker 1: not a common word, I had to look this up.
Speaker 1: Rack here in this quotation is spelled with the W
Speaker 1: W R A c K, And I was like, what
Speaker 1: is that referring to? Is that like referring to like
Speaker 1: a like a shipwreck, because rack sometimes is an alternate
Speaker 1: spelling of rack or wreckage. But also I looked it
Speaker 1: up and apparently it is also just a word sometimes
Speaker 1: used to refer to a massive seaweed like green vegetation.
Speaker 1: Could be oh, there is a rack with a W. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: well sometimes that I wasn't familiar with the precise definition,
Speaker 1: but I totally understood it in the context of the sentence.
Speaker 1: It's like, look at this rack. There's no getting through it.
Speaker 1: So so certainly you can imagine that the rack would
Speaker 1: not be a great place to find yourself as a
Speaker 1: human sailor, certainly in in ancient times. But of course,
Speaker 1: the rack is home to a great mini organisms, as
Speaker 1: we've already alluded to here. So uh for one thing,
Speaker 1: you have you have various um micro and macro um epiphytes.
Speaker 1: These are organisms that grow on the surface of a
Speaker 1: plant and derived derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain,
Speaker 1: and water. Uh. So you have that's those sorts of
Speaker 1: organisms growing there. You have fun, guy. You have more
Speaker 1: than a hundred species of invertebrates that are known to
Speaker 1: uh to to live within the sargassum, over a hundred
Speaker 1: species of fish, four species of turtle again, and it
Speaker 1: kind of spirals out because once you have a certain
Speaker 1: amount of of life uh fostered within the sargassum, it's
Speaker 1: going to attract other things as well. So you'll see
Speaker 1: things like sharks showing up, etcetera. So we are not
Speaker 1: going to attempt to cover everything that lives in the sargassum,
Speaker 1: but we are going to talk about some of the standouts,
Speaker 1: because there are some really fun, really interesting, really weird
Speaker 1: organisms that call the rack home. Uh in the first
Speaker 1: of which I want to talk about is the sargassum
Speaker 1: fish also known as the sargassum frog fish. Now is
Speaker 1: this the one that you lured me into this episode with?
Speaker 1: Because the first thing that I became aware of when
Speaker 1: you were getting interested in sargassum was was that you
Speaker 1: came to me and you said, Joe, there is a
Speaker 1: fish with hands. Yes, yes, this would be uh, this
Speaker 1: would be the sargassum frog fish. Um and uh and
Speaker 1: and I'll and I'll explain what I mean by by hands.
Speaker 1: And they're not quite hands, but they are enough like
Speaker 1: hands that you're committed to get excited. Um and uh
Speaker 1: and yeah, it's probably the most famous sargassum denizen. It's
Speaker 1: the species history of history o a frog fish of
Speaker 1: the family uh at tananara day and it's the only
Speaker 1: species of its genus. So uh, we'll describe them here,
Speaker 1: but also feel free to look up images or video.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's nothing quite like seeing video of these
Speaker 1: these creatures. I think there's some wonderful national geographic footage.
Speaker 1: But also the Weird House Cinema selection for tomorrow also
Speaker 1: will feature some actual footage of this creature right at
Speaker 1: the top. Um, So the uh. The sargassum fish grows
Speaker 1: to around twenty centimeters in length, so about seven point
Speaker 1: eight inches and I should I guess I should say,
Speaker 1: first of all, they generally have this appearance that you'll
Speaker 1: find with other frog fish um and uh and and
Speaker 1: they're related to uh into the angler fish of the deep. Uh.
Speaker 1: So they have these upturned mouths, which kind of give
Speaker 1: them kind of this uh, this frowny face look, this
Speaker 1: kind of froggy appearance and uh and and so that
Speaker 1: that's the first thing to drive home about them. So
Speaker 1: they have that that kind of body that I think
Speaker 1: at number of you can get imagine, but I think
Speaker 1: sometimes sort of think of it as the drawbridge jaw. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: that's a good way of describing a drawbridge jaw. And
Speaker 1: of course, like like pretty much all fish, you know,
Speaker 1: they're they're going to consume by by lunging and inhaling,
Speaker 1: you know, pulling their their prey rapidly into their mouth. Um.
Speaker 1: Their masters. These particular fish, though, uh, the sargassum fish
Speaker 1: are masters of camouflage, at least within the sargassum environment,
Speaker 1: because they've adapted to physically look like the sargassum, complete
Speaker 1: with fleshy appendages that look like weed. I've seen some
Speaker 1: of the some of the appendages have even been compared
Speaker 1: to organisms that live within the weed um. So they
Speaker 1: just they just they look like they're just a part
Speaker 1: of the environment. You'll see images or even footage sometimes
Speaker 1: of the sargassum fish hiding in the seaweed, and you
Speaker 1: really cannot pick them out with a human eye. I
Speaker 1: think at some point I watched a documentary or part
Speaker 1: of a documentary that had some of these in it,
Speaker 1: and it was one of those like, you know, trick
Speaker 1: shots where they show you the shot and then it's like,
Speaker 1: there are three sargassum fish in the shot, you can't
Speaker 1: see them at all, and then has to like circle
Speaker 1: them or zoom in on them or something. I think
Speaker 1: I've seen the same one. Yeah. Um. But of course
Speaker 1: it's not just their physical structure and initial coloration. Other
Speaker 1: cool thing about them is they can further adjust their
Speaker 1: coloration from dark browns and greens to light browns and
Speaker 1: greens to complete the illusion, to to fine tune it
Speaker 1: so that they blend in, you know, seemingly completely um.
Speaker 1: And they can do this quite rapidly as well. This
Speaker 1: is important for the sargassum fish because again it is
Speaker 1: a voracious hunter, but also it's the jungle baby so
Speaker 1: you know they're they're also they also also have to
Speaker 1: be on guard against other predators, so it also helps
Speaker 1: protect them. Now they let's get to the hands, so
Speaker 1: if you will. Uh. So, theirs their pelvic fins uh.
Speaker 1: You know the fins up front. They have nine to
Speaker 1: eleven rays uh in them and they're stalked, essentially forming
Speaker 1: what act like clause. Basically, they can use these things
Speaker 1: again they look like claws, they look like fish clause,
Speaker 1: and they can use these to grip objects, and they
Speaker 1: use these to clamber over and through the seaweed. Okay,
Speaker 1: so they can use them to grip objects, not in
Speaker 1: the sense of like like our fingers, where you would
Speaker 1: manipulate objects freely, but they can grip things in the
Speaker 1: sense of like sort of pushing against surfaces. Right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're not gonna be able to use an iPhone. They
Speaker 1: can't play the piano worth of darn, but but they
Speaker 1: can use these appendages. You have to sort of grip
Speaker 1: and push through things, which is gonna be vitally important
Speaker 1: when you're hanging out in the sargassum like little gravoid spines. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so they're really cool. Definitely look up, I mean they're
Speaker 1: beyond cool. They're a little creepy looking. I highly recommend
Speaker 1: checking them out. Um. So, so obviously the adults live
Speaker 1: in the mats and their eggs are placed there as well,
Speaker 1: but the larvae develop in the water columns between fifty
Speaker 1: and six deep. Um. And you might think, well that,
Speaker 1: I guess the sargasum environment then is just no place
Speaker 1: for for kids, right um, And this is this is
Speaker 1: certainly the case, especially since the sargassum fish is more
Speaker 1: than happy to eat them as l so they're in
Speaker 1: they're not only incredibly voracious, but their notorious cannibals. I
Speaker 1: was reading about some of the studies where they've they've
Speaker 1: caught sargassum fish and they've they've looked inside at their
Speaker 1: bellies and they'll find like multiple juveniles. You know, they'll
Speaker 1: find some juveniles and they just they'll just just gobble
Speaker 1: them up. Delicious. Yeah. So again, just a fabulous fish.
Speaker 1: Just it's everything about it is UH is both beautiful
Speaker 1: and frightening, uh in just the right proportions. Now, they're
Speaker 1: not the only creature that that that lives there. Again,
Speaker 1: and they're not the only creature that that takes sargassum
Speaker 1: as part of its uh you know, official or unofficial name.
Speaker 1: For instance, there's the sargassum pipe fish. This is a
Speaker 1: species of pipe fish that makes his home in the
Speaker 1: sargassum mats. Uh, And like all pipe fish and seahorses,
Speaker 1: the male carries the egg. Um. They're just into these
Speaker 1: elongated um, you know, beautiful fish with that kind of signature.
Speaker 1: Uh seahorsey head now um, just briefly a couple of
Speaker 1: other organisms. The first in general should say that that
Speaker 1: the Sargasso Sea in particular as the spawning site for
Speaker 1: various eels uh, including threatened and endangered eels. But speaking
Speaker 1: of decapods, there is also worth our consideration the Sargassum
Speaker 1: swimming crab or U. Portunists say, I uh, this is
Speaker 1: uh just one variety of crab you'll find in sargassum mats,
Speaker 1: but it's an impressive one and a species adapted to
Speaker 1: blend into the environment. They have an orange brown colorization
Speaker 1: that apparently matches up with the sargassum pretty well, and
Speaker 1: as the name implies, they're more adapted for swimming than walking. Uh.
Speaker 1: The fourth pair of legs are modified into paddle like structures. Now, crabs,
Speaker 1: of of course, are noted for walking sideways, So you
Speaker 1: might wonder how does it swim, Well, they tend to
Speaker 1: swim sideways as well. Uh, and apparently they're quite fast.
Speaker 1: They depend on a mix of active and passive hunting,
Speaker 1: so they'll they'll actively chase after something against sideways to
Speaker 1: catch it, but they'll also fall back on that that
Speaker 1: sort of ambush hunting within the jungle of the sargassum. Yeah. Now,
Speaker 1: in addition to these organisms that spend all or most
Speaker 1: of their lives in the sargassum, there are also organisms
Speaker 1: that use sargassum as a sort of like a stepping
Speaker 1: stone during their migration patterns. One example that's often referenced
Speaker 1: would be young sea turtles. Yeah, and I've also heard
Speaker 1: that it's important to even like migratory bird space species. Again,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's an oasis in the waste, an oasis
Speaker 1: in the desert of the sea. Than so, Now, earlier
Speaker 1: we we alluded to the sargassum being not not only
Speaker 1: this this bountiful environment, but also potentially a problem, a
Speaker 1: problem for humans and the sort of human likes and
Speaker 1: dislikes concerning beaches. But all so just for the environment
Speaker 1: as a whole. As the Ocean Foundation points out, it's
Speaker 1: ecologically important the sargassum, but it doesn't mean it doesn't
Speaker 1: have some downsides, especially when you're dealing with large volumes, right,
Speaker 1: And this is something that's become especially a problem within
Speaker 1: just the last decade or so. Actually, it can really
Speaker 1: be dated to a year in particular from what from
Speaker 1: everything we've been reading for the year two thousand eleven.
Speaker 1: Starting around two thousand eleven, something started happening with sargassum
Speaker 1: in the Atlantic Ocean, where there was a sudden increase
Speaker 1: that has gone on in many years since then of
Speaker 1: of sargassum inundations where beaches and shorelines along areas in
Speaker 1: the Caribbean, along the coast of Florida, along places in
Speaker 1: the coast of the northern coast of South America would
Speaker 1: just be caked with sargassum, like they're just mounds and
Speaker 1: mounds of seaweed piling up to the point that it
Speaker 1: in some cases would make these shores unusable for what
Speaker 1: humans have been using them for, usually in in the
Speaker 1: years beforehand. Yeah, if if any of you out there
Speaker 1: are are snorkelers or are you know, related to our
Speaker 1: friends with snorkeling enthusiasts, then you've you've probably heard about
Speaker 1: the blight of sargassum, about the disappointment of of, say,
Speaker 1: you know, reaching a popular snorkeling area and finding that
Speaker 1: there's just sargassum everywhere, um, you know. So it's in particular.
Speaker 1: One of the things that the Ocean Foundation points out
Speaker 1: is huge rafts of it can actually smother other sea
Speaker 1: grasses and even coral reefs. Um. You know. Granted, coral
Speaker 1: reefs are facing uh a number of problems, um you know,
Speaker 1: and and uh and we've gone into that in past episodes.
Speaker 1: But but certainly this could disrupt your ability to even
Speaker 1: properly view them as a as a tourist in the ocean,
Speaker 1: as a as a snorkeler um, you know, out there
Speaker 1: trying to to observe this natural habitat. Uh. It can
Speaker 1: also this is interesting this this has brought up as well.
Speaker 1: Apparently sargassum can serve as a means of transport for
Speaker 1: invasive species, though UM I honestly wonder if this at
Speaker 1: all compares to human enabled invasive species transport. It seems
Speaker 1: like um it almost wouldn't matter compared to what humans
Speaker 1: can and have done. Um, you know, importing species like
Speaker 1: the lion fish into regions that um, that that are
Speaker 1: not balanced enough to to contain them. Well, yes, but
Speaker 1: I would also say that there I think there is
Speaker 1: at least a strong likelihood that human behavior is a
Speaker 1: major contributor to these these new build ups of sargassum. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and we'll and we'll get into into more of that
Speaker 1: in just a second. Um, just a few more points
Speaker 1: here that the Ocean Foundation made uh. Sargassum of course
Speaker 1: can prevent boats and fishermen from setting out to sea.
Speaker 1: It can also prevent sea turtles from making it to
Speaker 1: net in these cases as well. So you know, again
Speaker 1: you have it massing up on the beach in particular,
Speaker 1: if it's um, you know a certain amount of that
Speaker 1: is arguably good for the beach, but if you have
Speaker 1: too much of it, yeah, it's gonna actually interfere potentially
Speaker 1: in a sea turtle's ability to come on shore lady
Speaker 1: eggs and then have the hatchlings be able to properly
Speaker 1: get back out to sea again in in an appropriate
Speaker 1: amount of time. And if it masses on the beach,
Speaker 1: the sargassum it. If it's not removed in time, it
Speaker 1: can produce hydrogen sulfide, which can have a major can
Speaker 1: have major detrimental effects on coastal ecosystems. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: it can have all kinds of negative effects on the
Speaker 1: wildlife itself. I mean, one would be like if it
Speaker 1: doesn't reach the beach, if you're just talking about it
Speaker 1: still being in the water. Big blooms of algal organisms
Speaker 1: in the water can have downstream effects when the blooms
Speaker 1: eventually die and then there's all of this dead, decomposing
Speaker 1: material in the water, and then the decomposition of the
Speaker 1: material ends up robbing the water of dissolved oxygen, which
Speaker 1: in turn leads to these big fish die offs and
Speaker 1: die offs of other organisms because there's not enough oxygen
Speaker 1: in the water for them to breathe. Yeah, and also
Speaker 1: all that decomposition in the water can promote harmful blooms
Speaker 1: of bacteria and other microbes. I guess the way to
Speaker 1: to to think of it is it's basically like spiraling
Speaker 1: imbalance in the ecosystem and uh and and uh it's
Speaker 1: it's place in this this this this cascade of imbalance.
Speaker 1: Now to get kind of a I guess, sort of
Speaker 1: a bird's eye or I guess satellite view of things UM.
Speaker 1: I found this pretty helpful. I was looking at a
Speaker 1: July twenty nineteen article from NASA Goddard. They utilize the
Speaker 1: satellite images to observe the Great Atlantic sargassum belt uh
Speaker 1: so at this point, based on simulations, they confirmed that
Speaker 1: its shape was due to ocean purnants and that it
Speaker 1: can grow large enough so as to blanket the surface
Speaker 1: of the Tropical Atlantic from the west coast of Africa
Speaker 1: to the Gulf of Mexico. Major blooms have occurred in
Speaker 1: every year between twenty eleven and again, this was a
Speaker 1: July article, so that's as far up as it went
Speaker 1: at the time. UH with the exception of which this
Speaker 1: was apparently uh in this year was impacted by unusually
Speaker 1: low seed populations during the winter, but otherwise eleven onward,
Speaker 1: it's been sargassum season. Prior to eleven, most of the
Speaker 1: free floating sargassum in the ocean was primarily found in
Speaker 1: patches around the Gulf of Mexico and the Sargasso Sea.
Speaker 1: But then something changed, something seemingly in the biochemistry the ocean. Obviously,
Speaker 1: you know, people were asking a lot of questions about
Speaker 1: climate change. Uh, and and ultimately I guess the reality
Speaker 1: is is complicated, but basically yes, it's pointed out by
Speaker 1: a doctor Paul all up Bon Tempi of NASA's Ocean
Speaker 1: Biology and Biogeochemistry Program, the ocean's biochemistry is changing due
Speaker 1: to a mix of natural and human forces, and it
Speaker 1: seems to be leading to an ecosystem shift with important
Speaker 1: implications for marine life and human life, since we depend
Speaker 1: on many of the species in question and live in
Speaker 1: and in many of the environments that are impacted. UH.
Speaker 1: Climate change is certainly a key aspect of this, as
Speaker 1: it impacts precipitation and ocean circulation, but increased water temperatures
Speaker 1: specifically don't seem to be the cause. It's these other causes.
Speaker 1: But again, uh, climate change is very much part of
Speaker 1: the issue. I don't want to make it sound like
Speaker 1: it's not. Yeah, if you're If you want to read
Speaker 1: more in depth about this research, there's a really good
Speaker 1: article in the Atlantic by Ed Young from July nineteen
Speaker 1: called hy waves of seaweed have been smothering Caribbean beaches. Again.
Speaker 1: This from July nineteen by ed Young. Uh, that's worth
Speaker 1: looking up, and it gets into a lot of the
Speaker 1: difficulty and uncertainty and trying to figure out exactly what
Speaker 1: the underlying factors leading to this change that we first
Speaker 1: saw in the year two thousand eleven was establishing this
Speaker 1: this huge belt of sargassum that was not there previously.
Speaker 1: And and what we want to be very clear, this
Speaker 1: Atlantic sargassum belt is different from the sargassum in the
Speaker 1: Sargasso Sea. The Sargasso Sea is further north in the
Speaker 1: North Atlantic off the east coast of of like the
Speaker 1: United States, whereas this would be something that stretches more
Speaker 1: between Brazil and Africa. In fact, one of the things
Speaker 1: that ed Young writes about in this article was the
Speaker 1: very idea of the satellite photos that you were talking
Speaker 1: about that one of the fortunate things for studying sargassum
Speaker 1: blooms on the large scale is that sargassum reflects more
Speaker 1: infrared light than the sea water around it, So when
Speaker 1: you look down with satellites, sargassum patches can appear as
Speaker 1: hot spots in the ocean that can be seen from space.
Speaker 1: Young sites the researcher named Jim Gower of the Fisheries
Speaker 1: and Oceans Canada for for doing this satellite research. But yeah,
Speaker 1: these satellite photos found that the bloom really began in
Speaker 1: April of two thousand eleven, which correlates with you know
Speaker 1: these times when these pile ups on the beaches, the
Speaker 1: sargassum inundations really started becoming a problem that people noticed,
Speaker 1: but they started noticing the blooms off the coast of
Speaker 1: Brazil and the satellite images from two thousand eleven and
Speaker 1: then Young also points to research by someone named Ming
Speaker 1: Chi Wang from the University of South Florida who, along
Speaker 1: with her colleagues, they've basically established that, yeah, this bloom
Speaker 1: is just going to be an ongoing yearly thing. Now,
Speaker 1: uh that that it's coming and it's probably not gonna stop. Though.
Speaker 1: One of the interesting things this article gets into is
Speaker 1: a delay between the proximate causes that are likely leading
Speaker 1: to the blooms and then when the blooms show up
Speaker 1: within you know, what we can see with our satellites
Speaker 1: or what's piling up on our beaches. Because a couple
Speaker 1: of the factors that have been identified as likely candidates
Speaker 1: leading to these blooms, one is um is water being
Speaker 1: discharged from the Amazon River, you know, coming out of
Speaker 1: South America. UM. And this water coming out of the
Speaker 1: Amazon River is probably being especially saturated with nutrients from
Speaker 1: agriculture that's happening all along the Amazon basin, and so
Speaker 1: this is like it's like fertilizer that is flooding into
Speaker 1: the ocean, and then of course that is feeding blooms
Speaker 1: of of this macro algae. And then there are other
Speaker 1: factors they get into that are probably contributing, such as
Speaker 1: like what the different temperatures are this year. It's the
Speaker 1: same thing you were talking about that um that climate
Speaker 1: change doesn't seem to be the cause of it in
Speaker 1: the sense of increasing ocean temperatures lead to uh, lead
Speaker 1: to macro algy blooms, because that doesn't appear to be
Speaker 1: the case, but downstream, other effects of climate change are
Speaker 1: very likely contributing to this. It's just not the temperature
Speaker 1: of the water itself. Another factor that they're talking about
Speaker 1: is access to the seed populations of of seaweed. It's like,
Speaker 1: how many patches of seaweed are there leftover that survived
Speaker 1: the winter of the previous year and can act as
Speaker 1: a kind of seed for the regrowth of the seaweed
Speaker 1: every new season. Yeah, because I think it kind of
Speaker 1: brings back that point about the neumaticis having a like
Speaker 1: a year's lifespan, so there's going to be a certain
Speaker 1: amount of crossover as well there from one year to
Speaker 1: the next. Um. I was impressed one of the quotes
Speaker 1: that you pulled from the from the Young article just
Speaker 1: about how many tons of seaweed we're talking about here? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: So the estimate, I think this would be referring to
Speaker 1: the year previous to when this article was written, so
Speaker 1: that it was published in twenty nineteen, So I think
Speaker 1: this would be referring to the summer of eighteen during June,
Speaker 1: when the Sargassin Belt was at at its most fruitful.
Speaker 1: It was estimated to contain twenty two million tons of seaweed.
Speaker 1: And then there's even a clarification later in the article
Speaker 1: that that estimate is probably low since the resolution of
Speaker 1: the satellite camera that's taking the infrared imagery to establish
Speaker 1: that number, it has like a minimum sort of pixel
Speaker 1: distance resolution, so it can only see patches that show
Speaker 1: up at a minimum resolution of something like a kilometer.
Speaker 1: I think it was it could be wrong about that. Uh.
Speaker 1: Doing that just tough memory, but I think that's what
Speaker 1: it was. And uh. And so like patches that are
Speaker 1: smaller than that, with which there are probably plenty, they're
Speaker 1: not even really showing up on the imaging. So that's
Speaker 1: a lot of seaweed. That's a lot of seaweed, folks,
Speaker 1: and and that's ending up on a lot of it's
Speaker 1: ending up on the shores eventually. But one thing that
Speaker 1: is worth stressing again is that while researchers have probably
Speaker 1: identified some very good candidates for the explanations of of
Speaker 1: these blooms and inndations of sargassum in the last decade
Speaker 1: or so, there's still some uncertainty. There's like stuff we
Speaker 1: don't know about what what could be leading to it,
Speaker 1: and what could be the limiting and contributing factors. Anyway,
Speaker 1: the article by ed Young is a really good read.
Speaker 1: You should look it up. Yeah, absolutely, I recommend that one. Now.
Speaker 1: You know, in the past, I think it's been brought
Speaker 1: up when we're dealing with invasive species or species that
Speaker 1: are out of balance, one of the best things that
Speaker 1: you can do is develop an appetite for that species. Uh.
Speaker 1: In human beings now I don't I don't think anybody's
Speaker 1: making an argument that that could make a difference with
Speaker 1: the sargassum. But it is again worth noting that sargassum
Speaker 1: is something that humans can eat. Uh. We mentioned that already,
Speaker 1: and I found a wonderful blog titled Eat the Weeds
Speaker 1: with Green Dean. Um. So his name is Dean, but
Speaker 1: he's Green Dean. Get it and the blogs. The blog
Speaker 1: is titled Sargassum Sea Vegetable and in this post, Green
Speaker 1: Dean points to a few different culinary traditions that have
Speaker 1: recipes for sargassum. Uh. Though he points out that given
Speaker 1: the different species, basically it's sargassum is going to quote
Speaker 1: very in taste and texture, so there is no one
Speaker 1: way to cook your local species. Uh. He says that
Speaker 1: some amount of experimentation is going to be required, but
Speaker 1: basically he goes through different cuisines. In this post, points
Speaker 1: out that sometimes it's consumed fresh, other times it's cooked,
Speaker 1: saying coconut milk or vinegar or lemon juice. Other times
Speaker 1: it's smoke dried, or it's boiled. Sometimes it's even sweetened
Speaker 1: and put into steam buns. Sometimes it's cooked with fish. Basically,
Speaker 1: they're just numerous ways to approach it. But it's it's
Speaker 1: worth checking out the link. I recommend it. It said
Speaker 1: eat the weeds dot com. You'll find a post on
Speaker 1: the sargasm sea vegetable. Um. I'm not sure I've ever
Speaker 1: had sargassum in a dish. Maybe I have, and I
Speaker 1: just wasn't alert to it that now I feel like,
Speaker 1: I really, I really want to have it. I don't
Speaker 1: know if I have either. I mean, I've had a
Speaker 1: number of seaweed salads, but I don't know what species
Speaker 1: were in them. Yeah. Well I know some basic things.
Speaker 1: I mean, I know like comb and Combo of course,
Speaker 1: is a seaweed based food additive that is an amazing
Speaker 1: source of umami flavor. It's it's it's almost like raw msg.
Speaker 1: It's that it's good stuff um. But but yeah, other
Speaker 1: than that, I don't know. I mean, I've had I've
Speaker 1: had like various seaweed salads at Japanese restaurants that have
Speaker 1: had different types of seaweeds, some that looked kind of
Speaker 1: like orange brown, like like some species of sargassum do.
Speaker 1: So maybe I have. I don't know. Huh, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think I've i've only I know I've at least one
Speaker 1: time had like a sampler of seaweed salads from the
Speaker 1: Japanese restaurant. But in those cases, I think they were
Speaker 1: all still rather green. They didn't have um any kind
Speaker 1: of darker coloration. So I don't know. I'm gonna look
Speaker 1: for it now now it is on it is it
Speaker 1: is something I want to specifically try out, knowing that
Speaker 1: it is sargas them. I just looked it up to
Speaker 1: make sure I thought that combu was not sargassum, and
Speaker 1: it is not. Combu is a type of kelp. Well,
Speaker 1: obviously we'd love to hear from everyone out there about
Speaker 1: this topic in general, but but specifically on this question
Speaker 1: of the cooking and the consumption of sargassum. If you've,
Speaker 1: if you've, you definitely know you've had it, and you've
Speaker 1: had it in a particular way that was yummy or
Speaker 1: or or or not yummy. Let us know we would
Speaker 1: love to hear from you, and likewise, just in you know,
Speaker 1: in general, any feedback about about the various organisms we've
Speaker 1: discussed here surrounding sargassum or sargassum seaweed itself. Perhaps you're
Speaker 1: a Snorkeler and have your you know, two cents you
Speaker 1: want to throw in right in, we'd like to hear
Speaker 1: from you in the meantime, if you would like to
Speaker 1: hear other episodes of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, you
Speaker 1: can find us in the Stuff to Blow Your Mind
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Speaker 1: wherever you get podcasts. UM subscribe if you can rate us,
Speaker 1: if the platform allows you to um, you know it
Speaker 1: gives us, I guess a good rate. Guess what we're
Speaker 1: asking for. You know that supposedly helps us out, but
Speaker 1: in general we're just thankful if you're if you're listening
Speaker 1: to the show, and uh, you know, right in, let
Speaker 1: us know what you like about the show, what what
Speaker 1: you would like to hear from us in the future,
Speaker 1: what other topics you would like us to consider. Yes, absolutely,
Speaker 1: uh so, I guess we're closing out here, so huge,
Speaker 1: thanks as always to our wonderful audio producer Seth Nicholas Johnson.
Speaker 1: If you would like to get in touch with us,
Speaker 1: as as Rob just asked there, to let us know
Speaker 1: feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest a
Speaker 1: topic for a future episode, or just to say hi,
Speaker 1: you can email us at contact at Stuff to Blow
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