Another major environmental catastrophe that impacts on climate and world trade, but it is not on the radar. The following link is a good video of the Sargassum problem, a pelagic seaweed floating on the surface of the ocean. When we sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, we got stuck... three times in giant mats of Sargassum. The video gives a good explanation of what happens in the Caribbean when it washes ashore, but it misses the major environmental and economic implications that have a profound impact on world trade and marine life in an entire ocean. The Sargassum starts off from the coast of Brazil; it picks up nutrients from the Amazon and grows at an accelerated rate. It can double in biomass every 10 days. The weed crosses the South Atlantic to Africa and flows up the west coast, picking up more nutrients from the Congo and Gambia as well as agricultural run-off. By the time it reaches North Africa, Cape Verde, it takes a left turn and starts heading back across the Atlantic to the Caribbean. There should only be 1 million tonnes of the weed in the Atlantic, but there are now 40 million, and it is expanding year on year. Sargassum is a plant, and like all plants, it requires nutrients such as phosphate. However, the massive amount of weed uses up all the phosphate and then biochemically defaults to absorbing arsenic, which sits below phosphate in the periodic table. The Equatorial Atlantic is now devoid of phosphate, which means there is almost no phytoplankton, zooplankton or fish. When we conducted our citizen science project, 5000 samples were collected by 25 yachts at around 15 deg. North, and the results all confirmed that the Equatorial Atlantic was effectively dead. The results were not ignored by the academics; instead, they attacked the Citizen Science project, this has become the subject of a reports by Given the phytoplankton, such as coccolithophores and diatoms, have exhibited a regime shift, it also means the SML oil surfactant layer is gone, which means evaporation across the air-water interface has increased and aerosol/cloud formation has decreased. Satellite. Imagery confirms a 10%+ increase in humidity and a 10%+ decrease in cloud formation and rain. This is climate change TICC, the consequences. Impact on Central America, the survival of the tropical rainforests, mangroves, coral reefs, 25% of all marine life in the Atlantic and water supply for the Panama Canal. 6% of world trade and 40% of USA trade pass through the canal, and it has been totally missed as a major economic and environmental catastrophe. GOES centre for marine research: The video below was taken in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean from our sailing vessel Copepod. Via Howard Drydenshow more

Thomas Reis

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