JACKSONVILLE, Fla – What looks like sawdust floating on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico are actual blooms of bacteria.
Around Tampa Bay people are reporting a foul smell emanating from what resembles small chopped bits of hay floating on the surface.
The trichodesmium blooms nearly every year in the Gulf mostly in the summer and can often be seen floating in sheets for miles on the ocean surface.
Environmental conditions change the colonies intensity and duration in the water.
Although they can move vertically in the water, Trichodesmium is at the mercy of currents and wind and sometimes those factors push it along the east coast Florida beaches.
Florida has recently seen an outbreak of dust blowing across the Atlantic from the Sahara Desert in Africa which gives the organisms a boost.
Trichodesmium thrives by transforming iron in the dust into a usable form of nitrogen which powers their cells.
Weather patterns over the Atlantic ocean have increased the vigor of trade winds flowing below the Bermuda Azores high pressure system carrying the dust into the Gulf of Mexico.
Another plume is expected to fall across the basin this weekend which should keeps the cyanobacterial levels active.
Some strains of Trichodesmium do produce toxins, but researchers have not documented any negative effects of Trichodesmium on marine life or people in Florida.