"Why Sargasso Sea? Gulf Coast's Plea Over Origins of Seaweed Stink"

"Gulf Coast residents have entered their third month of dealing with a smelly, spongy, slimy scourge.

Sargassum, a free-floating type of seaweed, has washed up day after day on beaches from the Florida Keys to Galveston, Texas, since early May. The seaweed, in some places several feet high, is overburdening local cleanup crews, some say dissuading tourists from visiting, and confounding researchers who say they haven’t seen such a seaweed surge in decades.

'It lands on the Texas beaches every year, but this year is by far the heaviest that I’ve seen,' said Texas A&M researcher and sargassum expert Robert Webster, who has lived in the Galveston area since the 1960s."

Peter Moskowitz reports for Aljazeera America July 2, 2014.