This Article is From Jun 17, 2014

Tourism-Dependent Barbados Struggling to Clear Seaweed Surge

Bridgetown, Barbados: Clean-up crews in tourism-dependent Barbados are trying to clear gobs of brown seaweed littering numerous beaches.

Ricardo Marshall is a projects officer with the Caribbean island's National Conservation Commission. He says crews are being deployed daily to clear coastlines of pungent piles of sargassum seaweed.

The slimy brown stuff is washing ashore at beaches from Barbados' north to south coasts. The government said on Tuesday it is welcoming assistance from schools and community groups to clear the seaweed.

Sargassum is an algae that grows in the Sargasso Sea, a large body of warm water in the mid-Atlantic.

Officials in nearby Caribbean islands are warning about the possibility of ample amounts of seaweed washing ashore. Large piles of sargassum have littered coastlines in Galveston, Texas, after drifting into the Gulf.
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