(NEXSTAR) – Blooms of of smelly, toxic seaweed shattered records in May, growing to over 37 million tons and inundating beaches around the Caribbean. If it's not bad enough already, the amount of seaweed is expected to grow even more in June.
The University of South Florida's Optical Oceanography Lab tracks the growth of this type of seaweed, called sargassum, closely. As the bloom exploded in the ocean last month, large masses of sargassum started washing up on most Caribbean islands and Mexico's Caribbean coast. Smaller amounts also appeared in the Florida Keys, southeastern Florida beaches, the Mississippi delta and the Texas coast, the researchers said.
The already record-sized seaweed mass is expected to grow even bigger in June, bringing in more sargassum into the Caribbean Sea and