---
title: The Blob That Ate Your Beach Vacation?
date: 2023-05-09T05:30:00-04:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/the-blob-that-ate-your-beach-vacation"
section: Articles
---
# The Blob That Ate Your Beach Vacation?

*May 9, 2023* — by [Maggie Haslam](/author/maggie-haslam)


> UMD Experts Wade Into the Facts, and Fiction, of Florida’s Seaweed Problem

*Getty Images 1473975630 1920x1080 — Beaches in Florida and throughout the Caribbean this summer could be heaped with rotting sargassum, seaweed that originates from a 5,000-mile belt (below) across the Atlantic.*

Forget “Jaws.” If you want a beach-themed scare this summer, look no further than the real-life horror show unfolding on the East Coast: a monstrous mass of seaweed the size of North America drifting toward the Florida coastline just as millions of Coppertone-slathered Americans plan their own descent on the Sunshine State.

But according to retired University of Maryland Associate Professor Patrick Kangas, the eye-grabbing headlines coming out of Florida are old news—by 533 years. First documented by Christopher Columbus (really!) in 1490, sargassum (which means “floating herbs” in Portuguese) has been a fixture on beaches around the Caribbean, Mexico and part of the U.S. for centuries, originating from a vast seaweed belt that occupies the middle of the Southern Atlantic.


*Satellite image shows the sargassum belt in March 2023*




**Topics:** [Research](https://today.umd.edu/tags/research)


**Tags:** [Environmental Science and Technology](https://today.umd.edu/topic/environmental-science-and-technology), [Research](https://today.umd.edu/topic/research)


**Units:** [College of Agriculture and Natural Resources](https://today.umd.edu/topic/college-agriculture-and-natural-resources)