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Do we even know that it is new? Maybe sargassum has been clogging the beaches at times for thousands of years?
I have been going to Cozumel since 1978 and every year in spring or early summer since 1987. I always go over to the east side at least once while I am there. This kind of sargassum inundation on the east side beaches is new in my experience; the first I remember was four or five years ago. It also interferes with the fishing in the channel between Cozumel and the Yucatan; we fish out there on every trip as well.

But you don't need to take my word for it; ask anyone who has lived on the island for very long; they will tell you the same thing.
 
If this thread turns into something that belongs in the The Pub, I'll be terribly disappointed.
 
If this thread turns into something that belongs in the The Pub, I'll be terribly disappointed.
It doesn't sound that way. if you read the article, we can blame it on Brazil. I know the assumption would be we should blame ourselves...

"Runoff from the Brazilian rainforest could be fueling this year's massive sargassum bloom, according to some scientists.

“It’s coming off the coast of Brazil … quite sure it’s because of all the agriculture and use of fertilizer in the Amazon River Basin,” Stephen Leatherman, the coastal sciences professor known as Dr. Beach, told weather.com in a recent interview."
 
Do we even know that it is new? Maybe sargassum has been clogging the beaches at times for thousands of years?
I'll just add that if this is a cyclical occurrence with a frequency of 3.17 X 10^-32 Hz (1 cycle per 1000 years), I submit that that's close enough to a new normal for any of us. :D
 
But no one said the "C" word right? The Brazilians blasting phosphates and all into the ocean we can talk about without the other thing....

Right up there with cruise ships and southern hotel and northern treatment plant pollution?
 
I'll just add that if this is a cyclical occurrence with a frequency of 3.17 X 10^-32 Hz (1 cycle per 1000 years), I submit that that's close enough to a new normal for any of us. :D
That much is certainly true. Not to stir up another hornet's nest, do we know for sure that increased sargassum is actually bad for the world? Upsetting someone's desire to have a white sandy beach to walk on doesn't count.
 
That much is certainly true. Not to stir up another hornet's nest, do we know for sure that increased sargassum is actually bad for the world? Upsetting someone's desire to have a white sandy beach to walk on doesn't count.

I would submit it clearly is. It hurts tourism and tourism feeds the Rivera Maya. So walking on a sandy white beach DOES count if those people also use your cab, eat in your restaurant or stay in your hotel.
 
That much is certainly true. Not to stir up another hornet's nest, do we know for sure that increased sargassum is actually bad for the world? Upsetting someone's desire to have a white sandy beach to walk on doesn't count.
It's an ill wind that blows nobody good, but sure, it counts. But to your point, "saving the planet" is a misnomer. The planet doesn't care; whatever changes happen, man-made or otherwise, a new equilibrium will be reached and time marches on. Whether we will march on with it or not is a different question.
 

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