{"id":106481,"date":"2026-01-28T19:54:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T19:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/?p=106481"},"modified":"2026-01-28T22:06:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T22:06:13","slug":"coastal-atlantic-sargassum-impact-marine-affairs-tracey-dalton-analyzes-economic-impact-of-harmful-macroalgal-blooms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2026\/01\/coastal-atlantic-sargassum-impact-marine-affairs-tracey-dalton-analyzes-economic-impact-of-harmful-macroalgal-blooms\/","title":{"rendered":"Coastal Atlantic Sargassum impact: Marine Affairs\u2019 Tracey Dalton analyzes economic impact of harmful macroalgal blooms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Coastal Atlantic Sargassum<\/em> impact: Marine Affairs\u2019 Tracey Dalton analyzes economic impact of harmful macroalgal blooms<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Study shows sargassum events are expected to cause significant negative economic impacts<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n
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A new 溏心vlog免费B站-led study shows that Sargassum<\/em> events are expected to cause significant negative economic impacts across Puerto Rico, as well as the U.S. Virgin Islands and southeast Florida. (Photos Patricia Valent\u00edn-Llor\u00e9ns MMA \u201923)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Jan. 28, 2026 \u2013 Sargassum<\/em>, a hardy brown seaweed in the Caribbean, has been floating through seafarer\u2019s logbooks for centuries, but what impact is it having in the region today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a new paper, 溏心vlog免费B站 Marine Affairs Professor Tracey Dalton<\/a> and colleagues are updating the current literature about sargassum, with a look at its real economic impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dalton recently published a paper<\/a> on the algae\u2019s impact with Di Jin, a 溏心vlog免费B站 alumnus now a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution\u2019s Marine Policy Center.<\/p>\n\n\n

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溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Tracey Dalton and colleagues are updating the current literature about sargassum, with a look at its real economic impact. (Photo \/ Rhode Island Sea Grant)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Their paper provides the most comprehensive assessment to date of the economic damage caused by recurring sargassum inundation events across U.S. coastal regions. The research quantifies multi-million dollar, and in some areas potentially more than a billion, in annual losses affecting Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Florida\u2019s Atlantic coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Funded by NOAA\u2019s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science Competitive Research Program, the new study addresses a critical knowledge gap, examining the seaweed\u2019s economic impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile the ecological and public health impacts of sargassum inundation events have been widely documented,\u201d says Dalton, \u201ctheir direct and indirect economic costs to governments, coastal communities, and private industries had not previously been quantified.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese results highlight the urgency of sustained investment in sargassum monitoring, forecasting, and cleanup infrastructure,\u201d she says. \u201cWithout proactive management, the economic consequences for coastal communities will continue to escalate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Sargassum accumulations can cause have negative impacts on tourism, fishing, and real estate.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Dalton credits her former Ph.D. student, Ken Hamel \u201924, now working with the USDA Forest Service, for playing a pivotal role in initiating the project. Hamel studied phycology while pursuing his master\u2019s degree so he brought an interest in seaweeds and other algae to 溏心vlog免费B站. The two published related articles on sargassum events, illustrating the seaweed as a significant regional problem with a number of negative impacts. In fact, such events are considered a new type of natural disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe spent a lot of Ken’s early days in the marine affairs program talking about the intersection of seaweed and people,\u201d Dalton says. \u201cCommunities across the Caribbean were experiencing health, economic, and social impacts from these events, but studies on these impacts were limited.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Dalton and her 溏心vlog免费B站 colleague Carlos Garcia-Quijano, a professor of anthropology and marine affairs, had done research in Caribbean communities over the years, so the three of them started building a collaborative interdisciplinary study of sargassum impacts on local communities in the Caribbean and brought in Jin at Woods Hole, who has expertise conducting economic impact analyses of harmful algal blooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to 2011, there were small sporadic amounts of sargassum in the Caribbean region, Dalton says, but satellite studies showed the first major sargassum event in the region in 2011. Multiple factors influence the timing and extent of sargassum blooms in the Caribbean, and scientists are still trying to understand how all of these factors contribute to these events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their paper in the new issue of Harmful Algae<\/em> documents these rising events in the region, and social and economic disruptions in the area. Using field observations from the Sargassum Watch database, they validate Sargassum<\/em> forecasts in the region, showing that the sargassum season has started earlier and lasted longer in recent years. In 2025, nearly 38 million metric tons of sargassum were observed in the Caribbean, the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, breaking historical records. Such events can cause considerable physical, ecological and socioeconomic impacts and have negative impacts on human activities such as tourism, hospitality, fishing, lodging, boating, real estate, and the cruise industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team\u2019s results will provide important input for deciding the direction of future sargassum response and cleanup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Risk levels were shown to be highest in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, along Florida\u2019s eastern coast and panhandle. The risk level was generally low along Florida\u2019s west coast, since the dominant winds blow east to west, away from the shoreline, pushing the sargassum away from the coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In eastern Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, the sargassum risk level peaks in May or June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, sargassum inundation has been getting worse each summer, with the season starting earlier and lasting longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to the frequency of events, annual expected impacts are higher along Florida\u2019s east coast, with a $2.7 billion direct impact in the region; for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, the annual expected direct impact is more than $100 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Future studies could examine connections between economic activity and sargassum blooms and other economic impacts including human health concerns. Another dimension is beneficial uses for sargassum, including for fertilizer, animal feed and even biomass for power generation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coastal Atlantic Sargassum impact: Marine Affairs\u2019 Tracey Dalton analyzes economic impact of harmful macroalgal blooms Study shows sargassum events are expected to cause significant negative economic impacts KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Jan. 28, 2026 \u2013 Sargassum, a hardy brown seaweed in the Caribbean, has been floating through seafarer\u2019s logbooks for centuries, but what impact is it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":106482,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5,1914,1905],"class_list":["post-106481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-college-of-the-environment-and-life-sciences","tag-graduate","tag-research"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106481"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106496,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106481\/revisions\/106496"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}