DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — At Delray Beach, Friday it was tan sand and clear blue water that had beachgoers calling the view picturesque.
“Perfect sunny day in Florida,” Alberto Alvarez said.
For a while, a bothersome bloom was blocking his view.
“It wasn’t attractive,” he said.
For months brown seaweed known as sargassum layered our coastline. In July exclusive chopper five video captured large amounts of the brown seaweed on the coastline from Delray Beach to Hobe Sound. Now the view has changed.
“Blue water, nice clean sand,” on beachgoer said.
Florida Atlantic Harbor Branch Scientist and Researcher Brian Lapointe says to put it simply Hurricane Dorian caused the sargassum to sink.
“The rough seas actually breaks the little air bladders off the sargassum plants and once they lose their air bladders that’s what gives the buoyancy and allows them to float.
They sink to the bottom of the sea,” he said.
Lapointe warns that the waves of worry aren’t over quite yet. He says sargassum blooms in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico could make its way back over to our beaches.
“The beaches are relatively clean right now, but ya it’s just a matter of time before we see more sargassum,” Lapointe said.