WEBVTT - The Sargasso Sea 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:05.280 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, the production of 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:15.000 My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your mind. 0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:18.119 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. And 0:00:18.200 --> 0:00:21.760 today we're going to go into the wettest of the woods, 0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:25.120 the saltiest of the woods. Today. The woods are salty, 0:00:25.200 --> 0:00:28.000 dark and deep. And we have promises to keep and 0:00:28.160 --> 0:00:30.880 miles to float before we sleep, because we're going to 0:00:30.920 --> 0:00:34.479 be looking at a sort of jungle in the ocean. 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:38.879 That's right. Uh. The ocean. Uh, it knows quite a 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:43.120 mix of environments, from rich coral reefs to desolate deep 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:47.680 sea waste from sunlit shallows to hydrothermal vent heated depths. 0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:51.640 Marine organisms, of course, face numerous challenges, but the most 0:00:51.680 --> 0:00:55.400 basic demands boiled down to, you know, how not to end, 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:58.720 how not to die, how to prolong. It's era to 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:02.960 quote way for the barbarians, but this is especially true 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:06.399 if you're small or your young organism. You're gonna need 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:09.400 food and you're gonna need shelter. Uh. And there's always 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:12.040 gonna be something trying to eat you. And for a 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:16.960 number of organisms, this is provided by sargassum, a genus 0:01:17.000 --> 0:01:21.560 of brown seaweed of sometimes brown, sometimes described as brown 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:24.600 and orange um as well. Discuss there a number of 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:30.200 different species here, But UH sargassum thrives abundantly in the ocean. 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:33.200 It floats free of the ocean floor. It provides a buoyant, 0:01:33.520 --> 0:01:38.600 free floating environment that travels on the tides and offers food, refuge, 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:43.200 breeding grounds, nurseries, hunting grounds, et cetera for a wide 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:46.160 variety of organisms. So in this episode, we're going to 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:51.880 discuss the sargassum organisms themselves, the environment that they offer, 0:01:52.360 --> 0:01:55.520 some of its benefactors, and also the problems posed by 0:01:55.520 --> 0:01:59.320 the so called Great Atlantic sargassum belt. Yeah, and that 0:01:59.400 --> 0:02:01.640 last point is interesting because I will say, when you 0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:04.919 think of of seaweed, do you think of the macroalgay world, 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:07.960 you don't usually think of it as something that is 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:15.440 particularly economically devastating or or even economically all that significant. 0:02:15.520 --> 0:02:18.440 But but that that is not the case for sarcassum. 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:21.280 Yeah as well. It's it's it's an interesting topic to 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:23.480 explore because in its present form it kind of cuts 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:27.000 both ways. It's both vitally important to UH to so 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:29.679 many organisms and a number of organisms that are then 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:33.240 important to us. You know various um, uh, you know 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:37.040 marine species that we depend on, various fish and so forth. 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:40.200 But then on the other hand, uh, in an environment 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:44.320 that is increasingly out of balance, Uh, it also poses 0:02:44.360 --> 0:02:47.960 a threat, and it can pose quite a nuisance. So 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:50.480 we'll get into all that. So what got you thinking 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:54.880 about sarcassum for today, Rob, Well, it's because tomorrow's episode 0:02:54.880 --> 0:02:58.919 of Weird howse Cinema will entail sargassum and casual mention 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:02.360 of a few of the creatures. One creature in particular 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:05.680 that calls at home. Um. Well, we'll try to save 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:09.200 all of that for tomorrow's episode. But but yeah, that 0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:12.280 was probably the first place I heard of sargassum, the 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:15.280 weed of deceit. I was wondering if we should announce 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:17.880 the movie, but maybe we should just make everyone wait 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:20.000 to find out they're going to be wondering. Wait, is 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:22.720 it a Jaws clone where it's a big raft of 0:03:22.760 --> 0:03:25.560 seaweed instead of a shark? Is it like the Blair 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:28.080 Witch Project, but instead of getting lost in the woods 0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:30.400 of Virginia or wherever it is, you get lost in 0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:33.720 the woods of the ocean of the Sargasso Sea. Well 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:36.280 that the truth will just suddenly strike out at them 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:39.320 and there'll be nothing they can do about it. Uh So, 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:43.000 so tune in tomorrow if you wish for that. But 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:45.920 but for this episode, we're going to focus on first 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:51.560 on on sargassum, the the organism. So sargassum glimpsed in 0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:53.600 the ocean or on the beach, it might just look 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:57.360 like a big heap of brown mess. But about closer look, 0:03:57.440 --> 0:04:00.960 you'll notice that it's composed of branches, leafy bits, and 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:04.560 what looks like plump berries. But they're not berries, So 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:07.040 don't don't pick them. Uh, I mean, I guess you 0:04:07.080 --> 0:04:11.400 could pick them. But what they are actually are neumaticists. 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:14.760 These are air bubbles um. Uh. They are part of 0:04:14.760 --> 0:04:17.200 the organism held that you know, in in these little 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:21.080 cysts that help it excel at floating around. Right. Because 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:23.840 of course, there are different types of seaweed, and some 0:04:23.920 --> 0:04:26.960 types of seaweed spend their life, you know, submerged in 0:04:27.000 --> 0:04:29.479 the water, and they might be say, anchored down by 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:32.440 a type of organ known as a hold fast that 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:35.640 is somewhat analogous to like the root ball of a 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:38.359 tree that holds it, except in the case of seaweed, 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:40.559 it would hold clumps of seaweed to the ocean floor. 0:04:41.040 --> 0:04:43.480 Not entirely analogous. I mean for many reasons, one of 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:46.440 which is that UH is that the seaweed that we're 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:49.039 talking about today is technically not even a plant. It 0:04:49.120 --> 0:04:51.960 is a type of macroalgae, which will explain more about. 0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:55.159 But in the case of sargassum, Uh, there are types 0:04:55.200 --> 0:04:59.080 of sargassum that are free floating organisms that spend much 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:01.760 or all of their I was just floating on top 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:04.520 of the water to have good access to sunlight, of course, 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:06.760 which they need in order to make their food to survive. 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:08.479 But they've got to just sit there and float on 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:10.880 the top. And they're actually not even anchored to the 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:13.320 bottom at all. They just float out in the open ocean. 0:05:13.680 --> 0:05:15.840 And I do just want to stress again that the 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:20.320 genus is sargassum, and there I believe about a hundred 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:24.599 and fifty species um all of sargassum. Uh. The hundred 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:27.240 and fifty number, I got that from the Ocean Foundation, 0:05:27.440 --> 0:05:30.080 though curiously I saw some higher numbers out there as well. 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:32.000 I don't know if those were accurate. I'm sticking with 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:34.800 the one, right. So there are different kinds that you'll 0:05:34.800 --> 0:05:38.920 find especially in different parts of the oceans around the world. Right. Uh. 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:41.839 And we'll be talking about some key ones though, that 0:05:41.960 --> 0:05:44.760 are the most abundant or at least in the end 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:46.080 of the part of the world that we're gonna be 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:50.200 discussing here. So, as I mentioned, sargassum is a brown macroalgay, 0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:53.960 so it is different than plants. And how exactly is 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:57.120 it different than plants? Yeah, I think this is also 0:05:57.160 --> 0:06:00.640 important to stress because if you don't think much about seaweed, 0:06:01.279 --> 0:06:03.560 you might just you know, you know, you might just assume, well, right, 0:06:03.600 --> 0:06:05.760 it's some sort of plant that grows in the water. Um. 0:06:05.800 --> 0:06:08.040 And I think that you might be reasonable to make 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:11.359 that assumption just based on its physical appearance. And certainly 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:15.279 the word seaweed um, weeds are plants. Yeah, And and 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:17.919 seaweed is also used informally a lot of times to 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:23.039 describe both the algae and some plant organisms. But the 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:28.640 algae are protests, meaning they are uh eukaryotic organisms which 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:33.159 are not animals, plants or fungi um. So land plants, 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:37.680 for their part, they likely derived from fresh water algae 0:06:37.800 --> 0:06:41.440 about five hundred million years ago. And algae is of course, 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:43.080 when we look at the just the root of the 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:47.160 word um. They're synonymous with seaweed, as alga is the 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:50.120 Latin for seaweed. Okay, so if you if you just 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:53.000 think about algae like the most I would say, if 0:06:53.080 --> 0:06:55.480 I was to go on my own personal life experience, 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:58.120 when I hear the word algae by itself, what I 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:01.239 tend to think of is kind of green en pond scum, 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:06.400 you know, kind of very like something floating on top 0:07:06.600 --> 0:07:11.520 of a stagnant freshwater body like a pond or a lake, 0:07:12.040 --> 0:07:15.600 that is made of tiny little fibers that just kind 0:07:15.640 --> 0:07:19.920 of clumped together, doesn't have any recognizable macro structures the 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:23.640 way larger plants like like flowers or trees would. But 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:26.360 that is not true of all kinds of algae. These 0:07:26.480 --> 0:07:29.480 macro algaes that we see in these types of seaweed, 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:33.200 they have more complex structures that are more like the 0:07:33.240 --> 0:07:36.120 structures of land plants. So they might have something that 0:07:36.240 --> 0:07:38.600 is akin to the stalk of a land plant and 0:07:38.680 --> 0:07:41.440 something that is akin to the leaves. In these cases, 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:45.680 they would be algal fronds. Yes, yeah, so yeah, again, 0:07:45.720 --> 0:07:47.760 they look very plant like. You can easily look at 0:07:47.800 --> 0:07:49.760 them and say, oh, they're they'll leaves, they're the berries. 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:53.280 But uh, at any rate, again, a hundred and fifty 0:07:53.440 --> 0:07:57.520 different species of sargassum. Uh, though we're generally gonna be 0:07:57.560 --> 0:08:01.760 talking about specific dominant species with in given regions. For instance, 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:05.000 the two varieties found most often in the Caribbean are 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:10.720 Sargassum Natan's and Sargassum fluettans um. I don't think it 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:12.960 would be necessary to remember that, but just know that again, 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:15.960 we're gonna we're probably gonna refer to sargassum a lot, 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:21.040 just generally, but we're gonna ultimately be dealing with specific 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:23.560 species that are dominant within a given a region. So 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:28.280 sargassum reproduces a sexually through fragmentation, a form of a 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:31.960 sexual reproduction in which parents split into fragments and those 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:38.200 fragments then become adults. And furthermore, the Caribbean sargasm species 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:40.679 in particular, and some of these other varieties that are 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:45.560 important are hollow pelagic. That means that they not only 0:08:45.559 --> 0:08:49.920 float freely on the ocean, but they also reproduce vegetatively 0:08:50.120 --> 0:08:54.680 on the high seas. So they're they're completely in international waters. 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:57.080 You know, they're they're they're they're a monkey knife fight 0:08:57.640 --> 0:09:01.240 that the land has no control over. So yeah, but 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:03.280 that would mean that they don't They can do their 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:06.480 whole life cycle without like anchoring to the bottom at 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:09.680 any point or returning to shore or anything like that. Right, 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:12.280 And that's gonna that's gonna becoming important later on. It 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:15.600 get it really gets Nultimately the idea of sargassum being 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:19.120 the wheed of deceit, so it grows abundantly in the ocean, 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:22.640 where it forms vast floating rafts, as it's sometimes called, 0:09:22.960 --> 0:09:25.880 though um I don't think these are rafts in the 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:28.280 sense that you could, you know, be a shipwrecked sailor 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:30.720 at sea and climb on top of it or hoist 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:34.240 a sail on it, But essentially just big rafts, big 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:38.679 floating chunks of of the sargassum, all tingled together, stretching 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:41.840 in some cases for miles, and these form in areas 0:09:41.840 --> 0:09:45.440 of converging surface currents, and in doing so they create 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:48.800 a vital environment, like re alluded to earlier. But on 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:52.520 top of the environment, the organism itself provides food. According 0:09:52.559 --> 0:09:57.040 to the Ocean Foundation, sargassum contributes and estimated six of 0:09:57.040 --> 0:10:00.560 the total primary production in the upper one meter of 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:03.520 the water column. Okay, so that would refer to like 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:06.480 different different stages of the food chain. So you've got 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:09.079 the primary producers that are familiar to us. These are 0:10:09.120 --> 0:10:13.280 generally photosynthesizing organisms, like like plants on land, you know, 0:10:13.320 --> 0:10:16.280 that absorb sunlight to power the chemical reactions that make 0:10:16.320 --> 0:10:20.400 their bodies. And then you've got the secondary, uh, characters 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:23.160 on the food chain that eat the primary producers. You 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:25.760 know that that eat plants to survive. The same thing 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:27.840 is true in the ocean. So you've got these primary 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:30.080 producers that are at least near the top of the 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:32.480 water column are going to be basing their their energy 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:36.200 cycle on sunlight to to produce these molecules that make 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:38.600 up their body that that in turn are eaten by 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:42.079 other organisms that are the sort of the secondary organisms 0:10:42.080 --> 0:10:44.280 in that food chain. Yeah, it's it's like you said 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:47.479 at the very beginning, this is the forest that we're discussing. 0:10:47.920 --> 0:10:50.079 Like in a way, don't think of the ocean itself 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:52.719 as the forest. Think of the think of the sargassum. 0:10:52.760 --> 0:10:55.240 These going to these rafts of sargassum as the forest. 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:57.520 Because the ocean, as we've discussed on the show before, 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:00.280 the ocean can be a wasteland, the ocean can be 0:11:00.320 --> 0:11:04.520 a desert and um and in that desert, the sargassum 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:07.720 can be the oasis um. It serves as a place 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:10.720 of refuge for various creatures as well as again breeding 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:14.160 grounds nurseries. In fact, it's the primary nursery for a 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:18.280 number of important to human to humans, especially fish species 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:21.280 like the ma ma. And given all of this activity 0:11:21.320 --> 0:11:23.400 that's going on at the various creatures that call it home, 0:11:23.640 --> 0:11:27.760 sometimes exclusively uh, their home, it's also prime stalking zone 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:31.760 for many marine predators. So both sargasm predators who live 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:34.520 there and have evolved a thrive in its environment, but 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:38.600 also general marine apex predators that are drawn in by 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:42.280 the by by the riches there by the biodiversity. Uh, 0:11:42.400 --> 0:11:44.080 let's see if a few other just sort of general 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:49.360 um facts about sargassum. It can survive wide temperature and 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:53.800 salinity variances, and after about a year, those new maticists 0:11:54.120 --> 0:11:57.120 that help it to remain buoyant, uh, they lose their 0:11:57.120 --> 0:11:59.920 buoyancy and bits of sargassum will then sync to the 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:03.800 sea floor where it will actually end up providing carbon 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:06.560 for various deep sea creatures. So it's not only an 0:12:06.600 --> 0:12:09.720 important energy source for the sunlit shallow regions of the sea, 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:12.280 but for the dark depths as well. I guess, serving 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:15.880 as kind of like that that nutrient rainfall that we've 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:19.440 talked about before that rains upon the deep and indeed, 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:22.560 when it washes up on the shore, uh, I guess 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:24.360 for for the most part we're talking about it. If 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:28.360 it's washing up in manageable quantities um, it can actually 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:32.480 nourish beaches, it can prevent sand from blowing away. Uh. 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:34.800 And when it washes up, it also serves as a 0:12:34.840 --> 0:12:39.319 food source for various coastal species um. And not only 0:12:39.520 --> 0:12:42.320 is it generally not harmful to humans, it's actually edible. 0:12:42.360 --> 0:12:44.319 More on that in a bit. UH. There are also 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:49.880 possible biofuel and pharmaceutical possibilities for sargassum um. We'll get 0:12:49.880 --> 0:12:51.880 into some of the drawbacks later on, but but one 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:54.199 of the interesting things here is that like the idea 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:57.320 of just sargassum piling up on the beach again in 0:12:57.360 --> 0:13:01.720 manageable quality quant quantities does bring to mind that sort 0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:08.160 of contest, that disagreement at times over what constitutes the 0:13:08.200 --> 0:13:10.320 beach or what the beach should look like. You know, 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:14.120 should there be anything on the beach other than um 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:17.840 human strolling and enjoying their vacation. You know. Uh, you know, 0:13:18.160 --> 0:13:20.440 some of the some of the really beautiful beaches out there, 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:23.319 a lot of times they are manicured. You know, things 0:13:23.320 --> 0:13:26.160 like seaweed are collected regularly in order to have that 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:29.880 sort of Hollywood beach presented. Uh. And in many cases 0:13:29.920 --> 0:13:32.480 there's an argument to me, may then no debris would 0:13:32.520 --> 0:13:36.040 be on the beach naturally, and it in the right quantities, 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:39.400 it can be important to keeping the sand from washing away, 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:42.080 keeping the beach from eroding, etcetera. I can see the 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:44.080 point of view that would say, I'm okay with the 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:49.000 beach that has natural debris, but not unmanageable amounts of 0:13:49.080 --> 0:13:52.200 natural debris or artificial debris. I mean, you certainly you 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:54.360 know you don't want too many beer cans. That's going 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:56.880 to kind of ruin your beach experience. Yeah, nobody wants 0:13:56.920 --> 0:13:59.080 to step on a beer can on the beach, But likewise, 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:01.480 nobody really wants to have to walk over a tin 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:05.800 foot high mound of sargassum like dead, rotting seaweed. Right 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:09.920 right now, Um, we're gonna be getting into the history 0:14:10.120 --> 0:14:15.440 of humanity's awareness and understanding of sargassum here and the 0:14:15.480 --> 0:14:18.320 first bit I want to share is that you know, 0:14:18.360 --> 0:14:24.040 certainly early sailors described sargassum mats, and one individual in particular, 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:30.720 Christopher Columbus. Uh, this was in when abundant sargassum fooled 0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:34.480 Columbus into thinking he was approaching land. And I couldn't 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:37.160 find anything that really defined this for me. I don't 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:39.880 know if you did, Joe, but I assume this is 0:14:39.880 --> 0:14:43.200 what the term the weed of Deceit refers to the 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:47.400 idea that you might encounter sargassum mats out at sea, 0:14:47.840 --> 0:14:50.960 and you could make the same air that Columbus made 0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:53.600 and think, oh, look at all the seaweed. Uh, there's 0:14:53.680 --> 0:14:55.960 it's thick, it's everywhere. We must be really close to 0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:58.920 land at this point. Sure, I don't know that that's 0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:01.120 where the name comes from, the that makes sense. Yeah, 0:15:01.280 --> 0:15:05.040 So on September Columbus Road, and this is of course 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:08.080 translated quote, we have begun to see large patches of 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:11.160 yellowish green weed which seems to have been torn away 0:15:11.200 --> 0:15:14.400 from some islander. Reef. I know better because I make 0:15:14.440 --> 0:15:17.040 the mainland to be farther on and then on September 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:19.360 sevent I saw a great deal of weed today from 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:21.560 rocks that lie to the west. I take this to 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:24.160 mean we are near land. The weed resembles a grass, 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:26.560 except that it has long stalks and shoots and is 0:15:26.640 --> 0:15:31.280 loaded with fruit like the like the mastic tree. Um, so, uh, 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:33.320 you know, I guess on the on September six, it 0:15:33.360 --> 0:15:35.200 sounds like he was like, no, you can't fool me. 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:37.480 We're not that close to land. But on September sevente 0:15:37.720 --> 0:15:40.800 he said, nope, we are close to land. Look at 0:15:40.800 --> 0:15:42.720 all this seaweed. I had to look up what the 0:15:42.720 --> 0:15:45.120 mastic tree is because I didn't know, but it's the 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:49.880 but it's known as Pistachia lentiscus. Ah. Yeah, I looked 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:51.200 up a picture of it as well, and I do 0:15:51.280 --> 0:15:55.280 see some some prominent little round fruits that you the 0:15:55.320 --> 0:15:57.920 little berries that I assume that's that's what he was 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:01.240 comparing to the what what are actually neumaticists? Yea. As 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:04.280 we mentioned earlier, the neumaticists are these little tiny berry 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:08.080 shaped gas bladders that helped the the seaweed float. But 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:10.480 in this case, yeah, it looks kind of like these 0:16:10.480 --> 0:16:12.800 berries in a tree that would have been familiar to Columbus. 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:15.800 I think the looking at the mastic tree apparently is 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:26.000 useful for its resin. So a special note is the 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:31.560 Sargasso Sea. This is a truly vast patch of sargassum. 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:34.560 According to the Ocean Foundation, the Sargasso Sea is sometimes 0:16:34.600 --> 0:16:40.080 referred to as the Atlantic Golden Rainforest and the islands 0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:44.240 quote unquote uh in the Sargasso Sea can be acres across, 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:48.440 while the regions they occupy can stretch for miles right now. 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:52.320 The Sargasso Sea is interesting because it is the only 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:56.720 real sea in the world that doesn't have any land boundaries. 0:16:57.400 --> 0:17:00.960 The Sargasso Sea is a sea within an ocean. It's 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:04.720 uh this patch in the middle of the Northern Atlantic. Basically, 0:17:04.760 --> 0:17:07.320 it's just a large patch. If you were to look 0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:10.439 at the eastern coast of the United States, uh and 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:13.200 you know in the Caribbean maybe with the bottom edge 0:17:13.240 --> 0:17:16.800 down around like Cuba and uh in Puerto Rico, and 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:21.080 then going up along the the coast of North America 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:24.879 up towards Newfoundland, and then you just extend out east 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:27.359 from there. There's this big patch in the middle of 0:17:27.400 --> 0:17:30.480 the Atlantic Ocean, which is known as the Sargasso Sea. 0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:32.879 Now we should be clear that it is not like 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:36.960 blanket covered in sargassum seaweed, but there are It is 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:41.080 known for having large rafts of sargassum seaweed within it, 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:44.520 and the Sargasso Sea is interesting in a number of ways. 0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:47.760 One thing about it is it's known for having UH, 0:17:47.960 --> 0:17:51.760 for being a place where ships can easily become be calmed, 0:17:51.840 --> 0:17:55.679 and this is a risk that people who are not 0:17:56.040 --> 0:18:00.000 very familiar with sea voyages might not think about very often. 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:02.080 But back in the days of sailing, one thing that 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:04.879 was really dangerous is if the winds die down and 0:18:04.920 --> 0:18:07.200 you can't say, you know, there's nothing to propel your 0:18:07.200 --> 0:18:10.480 ship in the direction where it needs to go. All 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:14.720 throughout the the Atlantic around the Sargasso Sea, there tend 0:18:14.840 --> 0:18:17.160 to be these wind currents. You know they're there are 0:18:17.160 --> 0:18:19.879 winds that will blow you UH, that will blow you 0:18:19.920 --> 0:18:22.320 east to west, down from the from the coast of 0:18:22.359 --> 0:18:26.560 Africa down towards UH, towards the Caribbean, and towards the 0:18:26.560 --> 0:18:29.600 northern coast of South America. And then there are winds 0:18:29.720 --> 0:18:33.040 and currents in the ocean that lead up north along 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:35.639 the east coast of North America. And then if you 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:38.120 go up north from there, there are winds and currents 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:41.080 that will lead you back towards the east from the west. 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:44.479 So essentially you create this box in the middle of 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:48.240 the North Atlantic that is surrounded by currents that go 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:50.920 in a circle around it. And this isn't often known 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:55.720 as the North Atlantic gyre. Now, anyone who's ever watched, 0:18:56.119 --> 0:19:00.359 you know, any number of sailing movies or TV shows, 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:03.920 or any TV show that includes like a a voyage 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:06.960 by sale across the ocean. This is a This is 0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:10.840 almost a standard bottle episode right here where where suddenly 0:19:10.840 --> 0:19:13.160 the ship uh is in a is in a region 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:15.600 where there's just no no wind at all, nothing could 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:18.320 propel them, and everybody just sets around and gets like 0:19:18.600 --> 0:19:22.320 superstitious and uh a little bit crazy until the wind 0:19:22.320 --> 0:19:25.320 picks back up and saves everybody right. And you can 0:19:25.359 --> 0:19:28.280 imagine like if you actually were traveling across the Atlantic 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:30.480 and you didn't know what you were what you were 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:32.200 going to see, or what was going to be out there. 0:19:32.440 --> 0:19:34.960 Maybe you'd heard some tales of sea monsters. Who knows, 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:38.080 you get into an area where there is less wind 0:19:38.200 --> 0:19:40.680 than you're used to than when you traveled into the area. 0:19:40.720 --> 0:19:43.520 You are suddenly be calmed, it becomes hard to travel 0:19:43.560 --> 0:19:45.080 and you're just kind of stuck there in the water. 0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:48.600 And then you start seeing these weird rafts floating around 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:50.800 in the middle of the ocean towards you. I can 0:19:50.840 --> 0:19:53.800 imagine that's pretty odd. Yeah, And in fact we maybe 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:57.320 don't have to imagine, because there are some historical sources 0:19:57.359 --> 0:20:00.000 that that may well be referring to this. I guess 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:02.639 it's debatable whether they're referring to this or something else. 0:20:02.680 --> 0:20:05.840 But I wanted to look at the question how long 0:20:06.080 --> 0:20:10.240 has the Sargasso Sea been written about? Uh. It gets 0:20:10.240 --> 0:20:13.600 its current name from Portuguese sailors. I believe of like 0:20:13.680 --> 0:20:15.720 you know, the the early modern period, or actually I 0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:19.199 think before that, from like the fifteenth century. But but 0:20:19.240 --> 0:20:22.040 I was looking around to see how far back written 0:20:22.080 --> 0:20:26.040 accounts of the Sargasso c go. And I found an interesting, 0:20:26.200 --> 0:20:29.479 possibly applicable bit of history in a book by the 0:20:29.520 --> 0:20:34.879 British archaeologist and Oxford professor Sir Barry Cunliffe. Uh. And 0:20:35.000 --> 0:20:38.399 the book is called on the Ocean, the Mediterranean and 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:42.560 Atlantic from Prehistory to a d F hundred from Oxford 0:20:42.640 --> 0:20:46.880 University Press in and this is in a chapter where 0:20:46.960 --> 0:20:51.639 Cunliffe is writing about records of exploration west of the 0:20:51.680 --> 0:20:55.040 Pillars of Heracles. So the Pillars of Heracles today are 0:20:55.119 --> 0:20:58.359 understood to refer to the Strait of Gibraltar, that gap 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:03.119 between between in Morocco and the Iberian Peninsula, where you 0:21:03.160 --> 0:21:05.840 can just go through this narrow passage to get out 0:21:05.840 --> 0:21:09.159 of the Mediterranean Sea and into the broad Atlantic Ocean. 0:21:09.600 --> 0:21:13.440 And so he's writing about the exploration beyond this point, 0:21:13.520 --> 0:21:17.280 out to the west by the ancient cultures of North Africa, 0:21:17.359 --> 0:21:20.680 Europe and Central Asia. And for for most of these cultures, 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:23.560 the Mediterranean Sea was of course their bread and butter. 0:21:23.600 --> 0:21:26.000 I mean, the sea, even the Mediterranean Sea has has 0:21:26.000 --> 0:21:29.320 plenty of dangers and mysteries to it. But sea voyages 0:21:29.400 --> 0:21:32.560 within this region where you know, we're well understood for 0:21:32.560 --> 0:21:36.000 for trade and and exploration and warfare and fishing and 0:21:36.040 --> 0:21:40.120 all that. But sea voyages west into the Atlantic Ocean 0:21:40.280 --> 0:21:42.840 or another story. And and so you get plenty of 0:21:42.920 --> 0:21:47.200 tales and say Greek thought and Greek mythology about islands 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:49.919 that maybe lay out to the west of of the 0:21:49.920 --> 0:21:52.879 Pillars of Hercules, way out there in the ocean that 0:21:52.880 --> 0:21:56.600 that is mostly unexplored by your people. Most of the 0:21:56.600 --> 0:22:00.880 early explorers who passed west of Gibraltar did so in 0:22:01.000 --> 0:22:04.680 order to travel along the coast to the north or south, 0:22:04.800 --> 0:22:06.760 so this would be traveling up along the coast of 0:22:06.760 --> 0:22:11.480 the Iberian Peninsula uh to form these ports along places 0:22:11.480 --> 0:22:14.960 like Cadiz that became a Phoenician port, or south along 0:22:15.000 --> 0:22:18.080 the coast of Africa. The Phoenicians and the Greeks did 0:22:18.119 --> 0:22:22.480 this to various extents, but the vast and presumably mostly 0:22:22.560 --> 0:22:26.719 empty Atlantic Ocean was not not among everybody, but widely 0:22:26.760 --> 0:22:29.520 assumed in ancient times to be a place of mystery 0:22:29.600 --> 0:22:32.840