Sargassum is a genus of brown seaweed. Over 300 species are distributed across the world in both temperate and tropical climates. The species fluitans and natans are unique because they spend their life cycle floating on the ocean, never attaching to the sea floor. Other seaweed species reproduce and begin life on the ocean floor .
Pelagic (open sea) sargassum has been described as the “golden rainforest of the ocean” because of the floating ecosystem it supports in the Sargasso Sea, in the western Atlantic Ocean. Pelagic sargassum also occurs naturally in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean.
