WEBVTT - From the Vault: The Sargasso Sea 0:00:05.720 --> 0:00:07.720 Hey, are you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:07.880 --> 0:00:10.600 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and 0:00:10.680 --> 0:00:12.639 it's Saturday. Time to go into the vault for an 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:16.919 older episode of the show. This one originally published April nine, 0:00:18.239 --> 0:00:21.439 and it's about seaweed. But you never knew seaweed could 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:24.160 be so interesting and such a such a tangled web 0:00:24.200 --> 0:00:27.120 of mystery. Yeah, not just the seaweed itself, but the 0:00:27.200 --> 0:00:33.840 various organisms that call that seaweed home. Welcome to Stuff 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:43.080 to Blow your Mind, the production of My Heart Radio. Hey, 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:45.640 welcome to Stuff to Blow your mind. My name is 0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:49.080 Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. And today we're going 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:52.600 to go into the wettest of the woods, the saltiest 0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:55.880 of the woods. Today. The woods are salty, dark and deep, 0:00:56.040 --> 0:00:58.960 and we have promises to keep and miles to float 0:00:59.000 --> 0:01:01.560 before we sleep, because we're going to be looking at 0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:06.759 a sort of jungle in the ocean. That's right. Uh. 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:10.120 The ocean. Uh, it knows quite a mix of environments, 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:14.240 from rich coral reefs to desolate deep sea waste, from 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:19.160 sunlit shallows to hydrothermal vent heated depths, marine organisms, of 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:22.880 course face numerous challenges, but the most basic demands boiled 0:01:22.880 --> 0:01:25.920 down to, you know, how not to end, how not 0:01:26.000 --> 0:01:30.080 to die, how to prolong. It's era to quote waiting 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:33.280 for the barbarians, But this is especially true if you're 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:36.920 small or your young organism. You're gonna need food and 0:01:36.920 --> 0:01:39.720 you're gonna need shelter. Uh, And there's always gonna be 0:01:39.760 --> 0:01:43.280 something trying to eat you. And for a number of organisms, 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:48.520 this is provided by Sargassum, a genus of brown seaweed 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:53.200 of sometimes brown, sometimes described as brown and orange um. 0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:55.720 As we'll discuss there a number of different species here, 0:01:56.360 --> 0:02:00.800 but uh, Sargassum thrives abundantly in the shan. It floats 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:03.760 free of the ocean floor. It provides a buoyant, free 0:02:03.760 --> 0:02:08.600 floating environment that travels on the tides and offers food, refuge, 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:13.200 breeding grounds, nurseries, hunting grounds, et cetera for a wide 0:02:13.280 --> 0:02:16.160 variety of organisms. So in this episode, we're going to 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:21.880 discuss the sargassum organisms themselves, the environment that they offer, 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:25.520 some of its benefactors, and also the problems posed by 0:02:25.520 --> 0:02:29.280 the so called Great Atlantic sargassum belt. Yeah, and that 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:31.640 last point is interesting because I will say, when you 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:34.919 think of of seaweed, you think of the macroalgay world, 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:37.960 you don't usually think of it as something that is 0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:45.440 particularly economically devastating or or even economically all that significant. 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:49.000 But but that that is not the case for sargassum. Yeah, 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:51.720 as well, it's it's it's an interesting topic to explore 0:02:51.760 --> 0:02:53.920 because in its present form, it kind of cuts both ways. 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:57.920 It's both vitally important to uh to so many organisms, 0:02:57.919 --> 0:03:00.600 and a number of organisms that are then important to 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:04.800 us you know, various um uh, you know marine species 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:07.680 that we depend on, various fish and so forth. But 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:10.520 then on the other hand, uh, in an environment that 0:03:10.720 --> 0:03:14.799 is increasingly out of balance, uh, it also poses a threat, 0:03:15.080 --> 0:03:18.280 and it can pose quite a nuisance. So we'll get 0:03:18.320 --> 0:03:21.480 into all that. So what got you thinking about sarcassum 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:25.200 for today, Rob, Well, it's because tomorrow's episode of Weird 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:30.040 How Cinema will entail sargassum and casual mention of a 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:32.720 few of the creatures, one creature in particular that calls 0:03:32.760 --> 0:03:36.040 at home. Um. Well, we'll try to save all of 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:39.640 that for tomorrow's episode. But but yeah, that was probably 0:03:39.680 --> 0:03:43.400 the first place I heard of sargassum. The weed of deceit. 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:45.800 I was wondering if we should announce the movie, but 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:48.600 maybe we should just make everyone wait to find out 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:51.080 they're going to be wondering. Wait, is it a Jaws 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:53.760 clone where it's a big raft of seaweed instead of 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:56.480 a shark. Is it like the Blair Witch Project, but 0:03:56.560 --> 0:03:59.000 instead of getting lost in the woods of Virginia or 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:01.000 wherever it is, you get lost in the woods of 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:04.360 the ocean of the Sargasso Sea. Well that the truth 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:07.360 will just suddenly strike out at them and there'll be 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:09.800 nothing they can do about it. Uh So, So tune 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:13.520 in tomorrow if you wish for that. But but for 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:16.960 this episode, we're going to focus on first on on sargassum, 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:22.240 the the organism. So sargassum glimpsed in the ocean or 0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:24.119 on the beach, it might just look like a big 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:27.920 heap of brown mess. But about closer look, you'll notice 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:31.440 that it's composed of branches, leafy bits, and what looked 0:04:31.480 --> 0:04:35.160 like plump berries. But they're not berries, So don't don't 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:37.640 pick them. Um. I mean, I guess you could pick them. 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:41.760 But what they are actually are new maticists. These are 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:45.400 air bubbles. Um. Uh, they are part of the organism 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:47.840 held that you know, in in these little cysts that 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:51.479 help it excel at floating around, right, Because of course, 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:54.360 there are different types of seaweed, and some types of 0:04:54.400 --> 0:04:57.400 seaweed spend their life, you know, submerged in the water, 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:00.520 and they might be anchored down by a type of 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:04.200 organ known as a hold fast that is somewhat analogous 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:06.720 to like the root ball of a tree that holds it, 0:05:06.960 --> 0:05:09.280 except in the case of seaweed, it would hold clumps 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:12.440 of seaweed to the ocean floor. Not entirely analogous, I mean, 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:15.120 for many reasons, one of which is that uh, is 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:17.800 that the seaweed that we're talking about today is technically 0:05:17.800 --> 0:05:20.560 not even a plant. It is a type of macroalgae, 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:24.480 which will explain more about. But in the case of sargassum, Uh, 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:28.280 there are types of sargassum that are free floating organisms 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:31.080 that spend much or all of their lives just floating 0:05:31.160 --> 0:05:34.120 on top of the water to have good access to sunlight, 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:35.920 of course, which they need in order to make their 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:37.920 food to survive. But they've got to just sit there 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:40.280 and float on the top, and they're actually not even 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:42.440 anchored to the bottom at all, They just float out 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:44.440 in the open ocean. And I do just want to 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:48.840 stress again that the genus is sargassum, and there I 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:54.040 believe about a hundred and fifty species um all sargassum. Uh. 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:56.279 The hundred and fifty number, I got that from the 0:05:56.320 --> 0:05:59.440 Ocean Foundation, though curiously I saw some higher numbers out 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:01.480 there as well. I don't know if those were accurate. 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:03.600 I'm sticking with the one fifty, right. So there are 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:06.520 different kinds that you'll find, especially in different parts of 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:09.880 the oceans around the world, right. Uh. And we'll be 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:13.440 talking about some key ones though, that are the most abundant, 0:06:13.560 --> 0:06:15.560 or at least in the the part of the world 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:18.000 that we're gonna be discussing here. So, as I mentioned, 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:21.279 sargassum is a brown macro algae, So it is different 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:26.280 than plants. And how exactly is it different than plants? Yeah, 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:28.480 I think this is also important to stress because if 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:32.160 you don't think much about seaweed, you might just you know, 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:33.839 you know, you might just assume, well, right, it's some 0:06:33.839 --> 0:06:35.840 sort of plant that grows in the water. Um. And 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:38.120 I think that you might be reasonable to make that 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:41.440 assumption just based on its physical appearance, and certainly the 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:45.880 word seaweed um weeds are plants, yeah, and and seaweed 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:48.400 is also used informally a lot of times to describe 0:06:48.440 --> 0:06:53.600 both the algae and some plant organisms. But the algae 0:06:53.640 --> 0:06:58.800 are protests, meaning they are uh eukaryotic organisms, which are 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:03.159 not animals plants or fun guy um so land plants 0:07:03.160 --> 0:07:08.120 for their part, they likely derived from freshwater algae about 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:11.680 five million years ago. An algae is, of course, when 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:13.880 we look at the just the root of the word um, 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:18.920 they're synonymous with seaweed, as alga is the Latin for seaweed. Okay, 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:21.480 so if you if you just think about algae like 0:07:21.520 --> 0:07:23.560 the most I would say, if I was to go 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:26.360 on my own personal life experience, when I hear the 0:07:26.360 --> 0:07:28.880 word algae by itself, what I tend to think of 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:32.720 is kind of green pond scum, you know, kind of 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:38.200 very like a something floating on top of a stagnant 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:42.520 freshwater body like a pond or a lake, that is 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:46.480 made of tiny little fibers that just kind of clumped together, 0:07:46.560 --> 0:07:51.160 doesn't have any recognizable macro structures the way larger plants 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:54.240 like like flowers or trees would. But that is not 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:57.600 true of all kinds of algae. These macro algaees that 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:01.080 we see in these types of seaweed, they have more 0:08:01.120 --> 0:08:04.680 complex structures that are more like the structures of land plants. 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:07.040 So they might have something that is akin to the 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:09.559 stalk of a land plant and something that is akin 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:15.000 to the leaves. In these cases, they would be algal fronds. Yes, yeah, 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:17.160 so yeah, again they look very plant like. You can 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:18.920 easily look at them and say, oh, they're they'll leave, 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:22.560 they're the berries. But uh, at any rate, again, a 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:26.920 hundred and fifty different species of sargassum. Uh, Though we're 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:30.960 generally gonna be talking about specific dominant species within given regions. 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:33.800 For instance, the two varieties found most often in the 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:40.520 Caribbean are Sargassum Natan's and Sargassum fluitans um. I don't 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:42.240 think it will be necessary to remember that, but just 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:44.520 know that again, we're gonna we're probably gonna refer to 0:08:44.880 --> 0:08:49.720 sargassum a lot, just generally, but we're gonna ultimately be 0:08:49.760 --> 0:08:52.600 dealing with specific species that are dominant within a given 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:57.720 a region. So sargassum reproduces a sexually through fragmentation, a 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:01.400 form of a sexual reproduction in which and split into fragments, 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:07.079 and those fragments then become adults. And furthermore, the Caribbean 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:10.439 sargasm species in particular, and some of these other varieties 0:09:10.440 --> 0:09:14.720 that are important are hollow pelagic. That means that they 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:18.120 not only float freely on the ocean, but they also 0:09:18.240 --> 0:09:23.360 reproduce vegetatively on the high seas. So they're they're completely 0:09:23.440 --> 0:09:26.199 in international waters, you know, they're they're they're they're a 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:29.400 monkey knife fight that the land has no control over. 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:32.520 So yeah, but that would mean that they don't they 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:35.840 can do their whole life cycle without like anchoring to 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:38.240 the bottom at any point or returning to shore or 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:41.320 anything like that. Right, And that's gonna that's gonna become 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:43.640 important later on. It get it really gets in ultimately 0:09:43.679 --> 0:09:46.560 the idea of sargassum being the weed of the seed, 0:09:47.080 --> 0:09:49.960 so it grows abundantly in the ocean, where it forms 0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:54.040 vast floating rafts, as it's sometimes called. Though um, I 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:56.640 don't think these are rafts in the sense that you could, 0:09:56.960 --> 0:09:59.160 you know, be a shipwrecked sailor at sea and climb 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:01.440 on top of it or hoist a sale on it, 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:06.040 but essentially just big rafts big floating chunks of of 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:10.360 the sargassum, all tingled together, stretching in some cases for miles, 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:14.200 and these form and areas of converging surface currents, and 0:10:14.200 --> 0:10:17.079 in doing so they create a vital environment like we 0:10:17.200 --> 0:10:20.440 alluded to earlier. But on top of the environment, the 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:24.800 organism itself provides food. According to the Ocean Foundation, sargassum 0:10:24.800 --> 0:10:29.120 contributes and estimated six of the total primary production in 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:32.160 the upper one meter of the water column. Okay, so 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:35.280 that would refer to like different different stages of the 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:38.000 food chains. So you've got the primary producers that are 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:41.840 familiar to us. These are generally photosynthesizing organisms, like like 0:10:41.960 --> 0:10:44.720 plants on land, you know that absorbs sunlight to power 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:47.280 the chemical reactions that make their bodies. And then you've 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:51.240 got the secondary uh, characters on the food chain that 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:54.440 eat the primary producers. You know that that eat plants 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:56.680 to survive. The same thing is true in the ocean. 0:10:56.720 --> 0:10:59.440 So you've got these primary producers that are at least 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:01.000 near the top of the water column are going to 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:04.720 be basing their their energy cycle on sunlight to to 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:07.320 produce these molecules that make up their body that that 0:11:07.440 --> 0:11:10.120 in turn are eaten by other organisms that are the 0:11:10.200 --> 0:11:13.480 sort of the secondary organisms in that food chain. Yeah, 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:15.559 it's it's like you said at the very beginning, this 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:18.680 is the forest that we're discussing. Like in a way, 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:21.000 don't think of the ocean itself as the forest. Think 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:23.720 of the think of the sargassum. These are these rafts 0:11:23.720 --> 0:11:26.480 of sargassum as the forest. Because the ocean, as we've 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:29.480 discussed in the show before, the ocean can be a wasteland. 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:32.720 The ocean can be a desert and um and in 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:36.800 that desert, the sargassum can be the oasis um. It 0:11:36.880 --> 0:11:39.760 serves as a place of refuge for various creatures as 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:42.760 well as again breeding grounds nurseries. In fact, it's the 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:46.920 primary nursery for a number of important to human to humans, 0:11:47.120 --> 0:11:50.480 especially fish species like the Mai mai. And given all 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:52.760 of this activity that's going on at the various creatures 0:11:52.760 --> 0:11:56.320 that call it home, sometimes exclusively uh their home, it's 0:11:56.320 --> 0:12:00.280 also prime stalking zone for many marine predators, So both 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:03.360 sargasm predators who live there and have evolved a thrive 0:12:03.400 --> 0:12:07.400 in its environment, but also general marine apex predators that 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:10.440 are drawn in by the by by the riches there 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:13.319 by the biodiversity. Uh. Let's see if a few other 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:17.600 just sort of general um facts about sargassum. It can 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:22.480 survive wide temperature and salinity variances, and after about a year, 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:26.120 those new maticists that help it to remain buoyant, uh, 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:29.360 they lose their buoyancy and bits of sargassum will then 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:32.880 sink to the sea floor, where it will actually end 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:36.120 up providing carbon for various deep sea creatures. So it's 0:12:36.120 --> 0:12:39.000 not only an important energy source for the sunlit shallow 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:41.320 regions of the sea, but for the dark depths as well. 0:12:41.679 --> 0:12:43.960 I guess, serving as kind of like that that nutrient 0:12:44.360 --> 0:12:47.960 rainfall that we've talked about before that rains upon the 0:12:48.000 --> 0:12:51.880 deep and indeed, when it washes up on the shore uh, 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:54.160 I guess for for the most part we're talking about it, 0:12:54.280 --> 0:12:57.959 if it's washing up in manageable quantities um, it can 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:02.520 actually nourish beaches, uh, can prevent sand from blowing away. Uh. 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:04.800 And when it washes up, it also serves as a 0:13:04.840 --> 0:13:09.360 food source for various coastal species. UM. And not only 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:12.320 is it generally not harmful to humans, it's actually edible. 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:14.319 More on that in a bit. UH. There are also 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:19.880 possible biofuel and pharmaceutical possibilities for sargassum um. We'll get 0:13:19.880 --> 0:13:21.880 into some of the drawbacks later on, but but one 0:13:21.880 --> 0:13:24.199 of the interesting things here is that like the idea 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:27.320 of just sargassum piling up on the beach again in 0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:31.400 manageable quality quant quantities, it does bring to mind that 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:37.120 sort of um contest, that disagreement at times over what 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:39.839 constitutes the beach or what the beach should look like. 0:13:40.080 --> 0:13:43.200 You know, should there be anything on the beach other 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:47.600 than um humans strolling and enjoying their vacation. You know? Uh, 0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:49.760 you know, some of the some of the really beautiful 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:52.439 beaches out there, a lot of times they are manicured, 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:56.040 things like seaweed are collected regularly in order to have 0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:59.840 that sort of Hollywood beach presented. Uh. And in many cases, 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:02.480 as an argument to me, may then no debris would 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:05.280 be on the beach naturally, and it in the right 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:08.760 quantities it can be important to keeping the sand from 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:11.760 washing away, keeping the beach from eroding, etcetera. I can 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:13.880 see the point of view that would say I'm okay 0:14:13.880 --> 0:14:18.199 with the beach that has natural debris but not unmanageable 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:21.600 amounts of natural debris or artificial debris. I mean you 0:14:21.640 --> 0:14:23.840 certainly you know you don't want too many beer cans. 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:26.400 That's going to kind of ruin your beach experience. Yeah, 0:14:26.440 --> 0:14:28.200 nobody wants to step on a beer can on the beach, 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:31.040 But likewise, nobody really wants to have to walk over 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:35.120 a tin foot high mound of sargassum like dead, rotting seaweed. 0:14:35.560 --> 0:14:39.120 Right right now, Um, we're gonna be getting into the 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:45.280 history of humanities awareness and understanding of sargassum here. And 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:48.320 the first bit I want to share is that you know, 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:54.040 certainly early sailors described sargassum mats, and one individual in particular, 0:14:54.360 --> 0:15:00.120 Christopher Columbus. Uh, this was in when abundant sargas. Some 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:03.840 fooled Columbus into thinking he was approaching land. And I 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:06.960 couldn't find anything that really defined this for me. I 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:09.720 don't know if you did, Joe, but I assume this 0:15:09.800 --> 0:15:12.600 is what the term the weed of Deceit refers to 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:17.120 the idea that you might encounter sargassum mats out at 0:15:17.160 --> 0:15:20.640 sea and you could make the same air that Columbus 0:15:20.680 --> 0:15:23.360 made and think, oh, look at all the seaweed. Uh, 0:15:23.360 --> 0:15:25.840 there's it's thick. It's everywhere. We must be really close 0:15:25.880 --> 0:15:28.760 to land at this point. Sure, I don't know that 0:15:28.760 --> 0:15:31.120 that's where the name comes from, but that makes sense. Yeah. 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:35.040 So on September Columbus Road, and this is of course 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:37.960 translated uh quote, we have begun to see large patches 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:40.800 of yellowish green weed which seems to have been torn 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:44.120 away from some islander. Reef. I know better because I 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:46.560 make the mainland to be farther on. And then on 0:15:46.600 --> 0:15:49.360 September I saw a great deal of weed today from 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:51.560 rocks that lie to the west. I take this to 0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:54.160 mean we are near land. The weed resembles a grass, 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:56.560 except that it has long stalks and shoots and is 0:15:56.640 --> 0:16:00.760 loaded with fruit like the like the mastic tree. Um 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:03.040 so h yeah, I guess. On the on September six, 0:16:03.280 --> 0:16:05.200 it sounds like he was like, no, you can't fool me, 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:07.360 We're not that close to land. But on September sevent 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:10.800 he said, nope, we are close to land. Look at 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:12.680 all this seaweed. I had to look up with the 0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:15.120 mastic tree is because I didn't know, but it's the 0:16:15.400 --> 0:16:19.880 but it's known as Pistachia lentiscus. Ah. Yeah, I looked 0:16:19.920 --> 0:16:21.200 up a picture of it as well, and I do 0:16:21.280 --> 0:16:25.200 see some some prominent little round fruits berries that, yeah, 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:27.760 the little berries that I assume that's that's what he 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:31.120 was comparing to the what what are actually newmaticists. Yeah, 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:33.920 as we mentioned earlier, the neumatosists or these little tiny 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:38.080 berry shaped gas bladders that helped the seaweed float. But 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:40.480 in this case, yeah, it looks kind of like these 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:42.800 berries in a tree that would have been familiar to Columbus. 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:45.800 I think the looking at the mastic tree apparently is 0:16:45.880 --> 0:16:56.000 useful for its resin. So a special note is the 0:16:56.080 --> 0:17:01.560 Sargasso Sea. This is a truly vast patch of sargassum. 0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:04.600 According to the Ocean Foundation, the Sargasso Sea is sometimes 0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:09.520 referred to as the Atlantic Golden Rainforest. Uh and the 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:13.199 islands quote unquote uh in the Sargasso Sea can be 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:17.040 acres across, while the regions they occupy can stretch for 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:21.320 miles right now. The Sargasso Sea is interesting because it 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:25.119 is the only real sea in the world that doesn't 0:17:25.160 --> 0:17:29.000 have any land boundaries. The Sargasso Sea is a sea 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:33.000 within an ocean. It's uh, this patch in the middle 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:36.439 of the Northern Atlantic. Basically, it's just a large patch. 0:17:36.480 --> 0:17:38.600 If you were to look at the eastern coast of 0:17:38.640 --> 0:17:41.680 the United States, UH and you know in the Caribbean 0:17:41.760 --> 0:17:44.680 maybe with the bottom edge down around like Cuba and 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:49.360 UH in Puerto Rico, and then going up along the 0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:53.239 the coast of North America up towards Newfoundland, and then 0:17:53.280 --> 0:17:56.200 you just extend out east from there, there's this big 0:17:56.240 --> 0:17:59.000 patch in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean which is 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:01.720 known as the Sargas So see now we should be 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:05.760 clear that it is not like blanket covered in sargassum seaweed, 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:09.120 but there are It is known for having large rafts 0:18:09.160 --> 0:18:12.679 of sargassum seaweed within it, and the Sargasso Sea is 0:18:12.720 --> 0:18:15.600 interesting in a number of ways. One thing about it 0:18:15.680 --> 0:18:18.879 is it's known for having uh for being a place 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:22.359 where ships can easily become be calmed, and this is 0:18:22.400 --> 0:18:26.760 a a risk that people who are not very familiar 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:30.080 with sea voyages might not think about very often. But 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:32.159 back in the days of sailing, one thing that was 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:35.000 really dangerous is if the winds die down and you 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:37.480 can't say, you know, there's nothing to propel your ship 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:40.960 in the direction where it needs to go. All throughout 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:44.919 the the Atlantic around the Sargasso sea, there tend to 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:47.560 be these wind currents, you know, they're there are winds 0:18:47.600 --> 0:18:50.160 that will blow you UH, that will blow you east 0:18:50.240 --> 0:18:52.840 to west, down from the from the coast of Africa, 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:57.000 down towards UH, towards the Caribbean, and towards the northern 0:18:57.000 --> 0:19:00.040 coast of South America. And then there are winds and 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:03.080 and currents in the ocean that lead up north along 0:19:03.200 --> 0:19:05.639 the east coast of North America. And then if you 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:08.120 go up north from there, there are winds and currents 0:19:08.119 --> 0:19:11.080 that will lead you back towards the east from the west. 0:19:11.359 --> 0:19:14.479 So essentially you create this box in the middle of 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:18.199 the North Atlantic that is surrounded by currents that go 0:19:18.280 --> 0:19:20.920 in a circle around it. And this is often known 0:19:20.960 --> 0:19:25.720 as the North Atlantic gyre. Now, anyone who has ever watched, 0:19:26.119 --> 0:19:30.359 you know, any number of of sailing movies or TV shows, 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:33.920 or any TV show that includes like a a voyage 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:36.960 by sail across the ocean, This is a This is 0:19:36.960 --> 0:19:40.840 almost a standard bottle episode right here where where suddenly 0:19:40.880 --> 0:19:43.160 the ship UH is in a is in a region 0:19:43.160 --> 0:19:45.600 where there's just no no wind at all, nothing could 0:19:45.600 --> 0:19:48.320 propel them, and everybody just sets around and gets like 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:52.080 superstitious and Uh, and a little bit crazy until the 0:19:52.080 --> 0:19:55.199 wind picks back up and saves everybody right. And you 0:19:55.200 --> 0:19:57.800 can imagine, like if you actually were traveling across the 0:19:57.800 --> 0:20:00.359 Atlantic and you didn't know what you were, what you 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:01.720 were going to see, or what was going to be 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:04.520 out there. Maybe you'd heard some tales of sea monsters. 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:07.280 Who knows. You get into an area where there is 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:10.080 less wind than you're used to than when you traveled 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:12.720 into the area, you are suddenly be calmed, It becomes 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:14.600 hard to travel, and you're just kind of stuck there 0:20:14.640 --> 0:20:17.040 in the water, and then you start seeing these weird 0:20:17.200 --> 0:20:20.160 rafts floating around in the middle of the ocean towards you. 0:20:20.560 --> 0:20:23.520 I can imagine that's pretty odd, And in fact, we 0:20:23.560 --> 0:20:26.639 maybe don't have to imagine, because there are some historical 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:29.840 sources that that may well be referring to this. I 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:32.639 guess it's debatable whether they're referring to this or something else. 0:20:32.680 --> 0:20:35.840 But I wanted to look at the question how long 0:20:36.080 --> 0:20:40.200 has the Sargasso Sea been written about? Uh. It gets 0:20:40.240 --> 0:20:43.640 its current name from Portuguese sailors. I believe of like 0:20:43.680 --> 0:20:45.920 you know, the early modern period, or actually I think 0:20:45.920 --> 0:20:49.320 before that, from like the fifteenth century. But but I 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:52.600 was looking around to see how far back written accounts 0:20:52.600 --> 0:20:56.040 of the Sargasso c go. And I found an interesting, 0:20:56.200 --> 0:20:59.479 possibly applicable bit of history in a book by the 0:20:59.520 --> 0:21:04.879 British archaeologist and Oxford professor Sir Barry Cunliffe, uh And 0:21:05.000 --> 0:21:08.399 the book is called on the Ocean, the Mediterranean and 0:21:08.560 --> 0:21:12.560 Atlantic from Prehistory to a D fIF hundred from Oxford 0:21:12.640 --> 0:21:16.880 University Press in And this is in a chapter where 0:21:16.960 --> 0:21:21.639 Cunliffe is writing about records of exploration west of the 0:21:21.680 --> 0:21:25.000 Pillars of Heracles. So the Pillars of Heracles today are 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:28.359 understood to refer to the Strait of Gibraltar, that gap 0:21:28.840 --> 0:21:33.320 between between Morocco and the Iberian Peninsula, where you can 0:21:33.400 --> 0:21:35.919 just go through this narrow passage to get out of 0:21:35.960 --> 0:21:39.719 the Mediterranean Sea and into the broad Atlantic Ocean. And 0:21:39.760 --> 0:21:43.760 so he's writing about the exploration beyond this point out 0:21:43.800 --> 0:21:47.280 to the west by the ancient cultures of North Africa, 0:21:47.359 --> 0:21:50.680 Europe and Central Asia. And for for most of these cultures, 0:21:51.119 --> 0:21:53.560 the Mediterranean Sea was of course their bread and butter. 0:21:53.600 --> 0:21:56.000 I mean the sea, even the Mediterranean Sea has has 0:21:56.000 --> 0:21:59.280 plenty of dangers and mysteries to it. But sea voyages 0:21:59.400 --> 0:22:02.560 within this region where you know, we're well understood for 0:22:02.560 --> 0:22:06.000 for trade and and exploration and warfare and fishing and 0:22:06.040 --> 0:22:10.120 all that. But sea voyages west into the Atlantic Ocean 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:12.840 or another story. And and so you get plenty of 0:22:12.920 --> 0:22:17.200 tales and say Greek thought of Greek mythology about islands 0:22:17.280 --> 0:22:19.919 that maybe lay out to the west of of the 0:22:19.920 --> 0:22:22.879 Pillars of Hercules, way out there in the ocean, that 0:22:22.880 --> 0:22:26.600 that is mostly unexplored by your people. Most of the 0:22:26.600 --> 0:22:30.880 early explorers who passed west of Gibraltar did so in 0:22:31.000 --> 0:22:34.680