What's up with all the SEAWEED on the coast?? (Port Aransas: travel, adult)

[ThanksABunch]

I visted the Port Aransas area every summer as a kid (throughout the 70s and early 80s)...and now again as an adult every other year or so. As a kid, we would spend almost the entire summer in Port A, usually arriving in mid-June...and I have to say I never recall seaweed being a problem like it has the last few years.

Why is the seaweed problem seemingly getting worse as time goes by?

Also...when does it usually disappear? I'm about to move down there and I was shocked to see photos of the beaches right now. They are all carpeted with seaweed.

Anyone have knowledge or experience with this? How long does it go on?

Thanks everyone!

[Mr. Football]

As I understand it, they used to sweep the beaches but now choose to leave the seaweed on the beach to help combat beach erosion.

[paransan]

Hi 'Bunch: Some years we get lots, some years we get a little, its all about what happens in the Caribbean and Equatorial Atlantic Ocean. As a kid (I grew up here in P.A.) I do remember summers when it was piled so high we literally could not see over it. Of course I was about 4 feet tall at the time. Most years, there is a hugh amount of seaweed (sargassum) that lies well offshore and never comes in, but travels in the flow of the gulf stream yucatan current up to the mouth of the mississppi river, then down back the way it came, as the summer changes to winter and the north winds begin. however, if the current of the Stream is not strong, and the southeast winds blow hard early and steadily, in it comes.
And yes it stinks, but it does pass, and it makes the sand stable and keeps the beach from eroding. I've used it for many many years as fertilizer and grows great tomatoes, but wow, it takes some getting used to in tonnage on the beach. We are cleaning it up and its a big arguing point how best to do that, but we're doing our best with what is allowable. It should be clear by July, so c'mon back.