Sargassum weed

1st February 2025

Saturday, market day. As has become the norm, this morning we woke with the sun, moaned and groaned as we mobilised our ageing joints. Without further ado we jumped in the car and made it to the coffee queue at Brighton farmers market by 7.30.

We had a couple of missions. Firstly I wanted to order some banana bread for my father’s memorial party. He loved it. So good old Betty is going to make us a stash of the most flavoursome squidgy banana bread and coconut bread to order. Job done … to be collected on the morning of the party. As for today …. do we taste test the pumpkin cake to go? … hmmm no …. we went for carrot.

The second mission was not really a mission but ongoing research and a battle with indecision. I shall explain the background …..

For the last 10-15yrs much of the eastern Caribbean has intermittently been troubled with a battle against sargassum seaweed. It comes and goes, often it finds its way to beaches in small amounts but sometimes it drifts in as huge rafts making swimming unpleasant. The rafts float on the surface of the waves (as it never anchors to the seabed) blocking sunlight to the coral reefs and waters below. It causes problems for the fishing industry, getting tangled in fishing nets and boat propellers. It can also entangle sea turtles and marine mammals. At high tide the seaweed washes up onto beaches with all the small marine creatures in it creating a maelstrom of stench. . . . There are several theories as to the cause of these proliferations but rising sea temperatures and agricultural fertilisers washing into the sea being the most commonly cited. .

Much research is being done to protect the valuable tourist industry in Barbados. Hotels have put up huge floating rafts to protect the beaches and have tractors scraping it up at dawn. Nothing really works. There are now beach cameras on popular beaches so remote monitoring can be done. I was really interested in the massive investment into this infrastructure so asked a taxi driver about it. “What about the beach cameras I say for monitoring the weed. Quick as a flash the answer came “You can buy weed don’t worry so long as you don’t get kiatch” Weed confusion … that was naivety on my part. The whole taxi was rocking with raucous giggles.

Atlantic sargassum seaweed has quantities of arsenic and obviously a lot of salt so is unsuitable for agricultural fertiliser or animal feed without being treated and this tends to uses lots of water. . However there is some research being done on using it as a biofuel. One ingenious entrepreneur – a regular at Brighton – has combined the seaweed with peat moss and perlite to make plant pots. The material will slowly release water back to the plant making it efficient for pot plants. His 90yr old mother hand paints the tiles. So we have been meaning to re home some waste seaweed but had yet to decide which of his beautiful pots was coming to live at Pollards Mill.

Decision made. Gorgeous. It will take a lot of pots to make a difference but I love the idea and supporting local businesses is important.

The Crane beach…. Before and after a dumping of seaweed. Luckily in Barbados there are so many beaches you can always find many that are utterly gorgeous and clear of the dreaded Sargassum.