Massive Seaweed Belt Approaching Florida Coast.

A 5,000-mile seaweed belt known as the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt is expected to wash onto beaches in the Caribbean Sea, South Florida, and the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. Sargassum is a brown algae that carpets beaches, releasing a pungent smell as it decays and ensnares humans and animals who step into it. The matted brown seaweed stretches for miles across the ocean and provides breeding ground, food, and habitat for fish, sea turtles, and marine birds. The seaweed bloom is caused by agricultural runoff seeping into the Amazon and Orinoco rivers and eventually the ocean, warming waters, and changes in wind patterns, sea currents, rainfall, and drought.