> for the last 10 years or so huge amounts of free-floating sargassum seaweed have grown in warm ocean waters around the world

For those curious about numbers for 2025, a couple links: https://optics.marine.usf.edu/projects/SaWS/pdf/Sargassum_ou... https://abcnews.go.com/International/scientists-concerned-re...

> Nobody is certain why the sargassum has appeared in such volume lately

For the record 2025 volumes specifically, the ABC article notes that sudden phosphorus flushes as a result of multi-year drought-hit watersheds finally being flushed out likely contributed. Ocean ecology at scale is usually highly correlated with nutrient density.