Amelia’s Conundrum – Sargassum Seaweed

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A Previous Sargassum High Tide

Susan Hardee Steger

Sargassum seaweed is not uncommon on the beaches of Amelia Island, but this year the large amount that has washed ashore is causing concern for tourists, turtle watchers, and from environmentalist over efforts to remove the debris from area beaches.

From an environmental prospective, Sargassum settling on beaches is a good thing.  Not only is it teeming with sea life (FDEP), but as the incoming tides move the weed toward the dunes, it stabilizes the dune system.

For tourists and beach goers it smells and the golden sands of Amelia that tourists expect are packed with yards of seaweed debris.

Amelia Island Tourism and Development (TDC)  received calls of concern from several hotels and monitored social media before it took steps to fund up to $50,000 to clean up the seaweed,” according to Gil Langley, TDC Director.  “The beach, economic, and environmental concerns must be managed like any aspect of the tourism industry,” says Langley. The $50,000 fund for cleanup is from bed tax revenue and not from city or county taxpayers.

There are mixed emotions among turtle watchers.   At the height of turtle nesting season, there is evidence of false crawls, when sea turtles approach the lower dunes to nest only to head back to the ocean without depositing eggs.  False crawls are occurring after turtles confront and at times become tangled in the Sargassum. Other turtle watchers wish to leave well enough alone and let the incoming tides disperse the seaweed.  North end beaches showed the earliest signs that incoming tides were doing just that.

Langley coordinated with Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Mary Duffy of the Amelia Island Sea Turtle Watch, and with city and county officials before undertaking the project.  According to Langley, “There is reluctance to interfere with the natural process, but with two major storms impacting our area, the tourism industry has suffered.”

After focusing on major impact areas, reports are the tractor and trucks are off the beaches.  Mother nature’s incoming tides did most of the work, so costs associated with the clean up are expected to be well below the initial estimate.

July 3, 2012 9:12 a.m.