It's here! Blob of smelly seaweed arrives on Palm Beach

The enormous sargassum bloom that has been pummeling the state's coastline has arrived in Palm Beach.

The often smelly, brown- and tan-colored seaweed washed ashore in larger amounts in recent weeks after a slower entry earlier this spring, said Rob Weber, the town's Coastal Protection coordinator. 

The entire island has been affected by the seaweed bloom, he added, though historically the town's North End faces bigger impacts later in the summer.

"Sargassum washing ashore is a seasonal condition that is typical along the town’s beaches starting from the March to April timeframe and often extends into the fall," Weber told the Daily News. "Much like late May of 2022, we have seen a larger volume of sargassum washing ashore over the past couple of weeks. Rough sea conditions tend to wash the sargassum off the shoreline. Calm sea conditions tend to leave the sargassum on the beach."

Related:'A new normal': Palm Beach looks to manage rising sargassum levels

Sargassum is a brown algae that floats in large masses on the surface of the ocean. It can be harmful to nesting sea turtles, eggs and hatchlings, and the town has stepped up its efforts to remove it from area beaches.

During its meeting April 3, the Town Council unanimously approved a contract worth $82,160 to Lake Worth Beach-based BeachKeeper Inc. and established a five-year project budget of up to $1 million for work that will include picking up trash and debris along the beaches and raking them.

Public beaches at Midtown and Phipps Ocean Park are raked twice a week as part of the contract, though that frequency would increase if the volume of sargassum grows.

The new contract also includes beach maintenance on the town's North End. Although those beaches are private, the area is unique to the other beaches in the town, as the inlet jetty tends to trap large volumes of sargassum in the area, Public Works Director Paul Brazil told the council in April.

"The seaweed, as it comes in, moves from south to north, and it gets caught on that southern jetty in the inlet," he said. "We've seen it impound there in much worse conditions than other areas in town."

Consistent with previous years, raked sargassum will be buried in the wet beach, Weber said.

If the volume of sargassum reaches a point that burying it in the wet beach becomes unsustainable, the town could take alternative actions through a pilot program conducted with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

As part of the program, some of the seaweed would be placed adjacent to the inlet jetty and covered with a thin layer of sand, or deep holes would be excavated in the dry beach within the town's nourishment areas and the sargassum buried under at least three feet of sand.

These actions would be mindful to sea turtle nesting, Brazil said. Sea turtle nesting season began March 1 and continues through Oct. 31.

Officials expect a record year for sargassum washing ashore on Florida's beaches, and an April sargassum forecast from the University of South Florida bears that out. According to the forecast, mats of seaweed have been found clogging the Caribbean Sea last month in amounts higher than previous Aprils, but the Gulf of Mexico's seaweed proliferation was below top levels.

The monthly sargassum report, which found 3 million tons of the seaweed in the Caribbean Sea, shows its growth spurt reaching its peak in June before starting to dissipate. Last year, however, large sargassum mats were washing ashore as late as September before impacts from Hurricanes Ian and Nicole washed it from the beaches, Weber said.

Town staff is working with its environmental consultant, Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Group, on broad-scale, weekly tracking of sargassum by satellite, Weber said.

As the sargassum moves from the Caribbean up into the loop current between the Florida Keys and Cuba, more of it will be pushed in the general direction of South Florida, including Palm Beach, he added.

"Sargassum is expected to continue washing ashore along the entire stretch of Palm Beach Island and throughout Palm Beach County," he said. "The town of Palm Beach is not unique to sargassum, as all beaches are impacted from the Florida Keys to the entire Atlantic Seaboard of Florida."

None of the town's beaches have been closed because of sargassum, Weber said. Beachgoers who have concerns are encouraged to reach out to Ocean Rescue at 561-835-4693 or townofpalmbeach.com/232/BeachReports.

Jodie Wagner is a journalist at the Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at jwagner@pbdailynews.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.