Flesh-Eating Bacteria Found In Giant Seaweed Bloom Washing Up In FL

FLORIDA — Researchers have found high amounts of a flesh-eating bacteria in the giant sargassum bloom threatening Florida’s coasts.

A new study from Florida Atlantic University shows how the seaweed interacts with plastic debris found in the ocean and the Vibrio bacteria species, creating “the perfect ‘pathogen’ storm” that could affect marine life, as well as public health, according to a news release from the university.

The bacteria is the primary cause of death among humans in a marine environment, the news release said. One of the more than 100 species of Vibrio, Vibrio vulnificus, can cause life-threatening foodborne illnesses by eating contaminated seafood, as well as disease and death from infected open wounds.

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The 5,000-mile wide seaweed bloom, the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt, forms off the coast of West Africa each year, stretching across the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. As it breaks up, clumps make their way to the shores of Florida and other states and countries in and around the Caribbean.

By studying eel larvae, plastic marine debris, sargassum and seawater samples collected from the Caribbean and Sargasso seas, FAU researchers found that the deadly bacteria has the ability to stick to microplastics in the water. They believe the microbes might be adapting to the plastics, the news release said.

“Plastic is a new element that’s been introduced into marine environments and has only been around for about 50 years,” Tracy Mincer, Ph.D., corresponding lead author on the study and an assistant professor of biology at FAU’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute and Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College. “Our lab work showed that these Vibrio are extremely aggressive and can seek out and stick to plastic within minutes. We also found that there are attachment factors that microbes use to stick to plastics, and it is the same kind of mechanism that pathogens use.”

This year’s sargassum bloom has been on track to grow to the largest it’s ever been, a researcher with the University of South Florida's Optical Oceanography Laboratory recently told Patch. As of mid-May, it was estimated to weigh between 12 and 13 million tons, Dr. Chuanmin Hu said.

But a May 31 report from the laboratory shows that the sargassum blob decreased by 15 percent in May compared to its size in April.

“Such a decrease for this time of the year (has) never occurred in history” since the GASB was first recorded and studied in 2011, the report said. “This is primarily due to a sharp decrease in the eastern Atlantic … from March to April, the sargassum quantity was halved, and from April to May it was halved again. The reasons behind such a sharp decrease remain to be investigated.”

The amount of sargassum increased slightly in the Central West Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, while decreasing slightly in the Caribbean Sea, researchers said.

There’s still a large amount of seaweed making its way across the ocean, the report added. “Compared to the same month of 2011 (to) 2022, the quantity in these regions is still high, in either the top 50 percentile or the top 25 percentile.”