Sargassum algae
Sargassum is a type of seaweed, or brown algae, that spends its life on the ocean’s surface and floats in large masses.
Unlike red tide and blue-green algae, sargassum isn’t harmful.
it’s an important fish habitat that provides food and refuge for fish, birds, crabs, shrimp and many other marine organisms.
After sargassum loses its buoyancy, it sinks and provides energy in the form of carbon to organisms in the deep sea.
Washed-up sargassum also helps sustain shorelines, as the algae helps with erosion and provides beach plants with nutrients.
Problems associated with it:
Too much sargassum can be a bad thing.
Large blooms can block sunlight and kill the seagrass growing below.
When the sargassum dies and decomposes, the decaying organic matter removes the oxygen from the water, which can cause fish kills.
It doesn’t smell very good from land, either.
Problems associated with it:
Researchers have found they contain a high concentration of the dangerous Vibrio bacteria, which can stick to the plastic entangled in the sargassum.
Vibrio bacteria
Vibrio, (genus Vibrio), any of a group of comma-shaped bacteria in the family Vibrionaceae.
Vibrios are aquatic microorganisms, some species of which cause serious diseases in humans and other animals.
Vibrios are microbiologically characterized as gram-negative, highly motile, facultative anaerobes (not requiring oxygen), with one to three whiplike flagella at one end.
Three species of vibrio are of significance to humans: V. cholerae is the cause of cholera, and V. parahaemolyticus and V. vulnificus both act as agents of acute enteritis, or bacterial diarrhea.
V. anguillarum is found in diseased eels and other fishes.
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