Millions of tons of seaweed have washed up on Caribbean beaches in recent weeks — and as the mass begins to decay, the stench has smothered wildlife and even forced schools to shut temporarily.
A record-breaking 39 million tons (37.5 million metric tons) of sargassum choked the Caribbean Sea and parts of the Atlantic Ocean in May, according to a report by the University of South Florida's Optical Oceanography Laboratory. That number is much higher than the previous record of 24 million tons (22 million metric tons), which was documented in June 2022.
