This seaweed invasion is so big you can see it from space

There's a seaweed invasion happening in the Caribbean. We're talking entire beaches buried in it. To understand just how enormous this problem has become, we need to zoom way out. This stuff stretches thousands of kilometers across the Atlantic. It's so big, scientists are tracking it from space. And when it washes ashore, it can smother turtles' nests, drive tourists away, even make people sick. So how did seaweed become such a big problem? And could some good come out of all of this? It's called sargassum and the seaweed isn't new. It normally floats in patches across the Atlantic from small clumps to mats that are several meters wide. These floating islands actually provide vital shelter and nursery grounds for fish baby sea turtles and other marine life, but as with many other things, too much of a good thing at the wrong time, wrong location could be very bad, and this is what most people experienced in the past two years. So why is there suddenly so much of this stuff ending up on the Caribbean beaches? Scientists think it's a bit of a perfect storm. For centuries most of the seaweed stuck to the Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic but around 2010, unusual winds may have pushed some into tropical waters where it found ideal conditions to multiply. Plenty of sunlight and nutrients to feed its growth including fertilizer runoff carried in the ocean by rivers. Climate change is also warming those waters helping the seaweed to thrive. Meanwhile winds and currents kept carrying those massive blooms towards the Caribbean, and when all that seaweed piles up on beaches it starts to rot releasing hydrogen sulfide that gas that smells like rotten eggs that can be harmful at high concentrations. On some beaches the waves bring in more seaweed than crews can keep up with. So what can be done with all this seaweed? In Barbados one scientist is trying to turn it into fuel and her recipe is wonderfully Caribbean. It ties into rum production. Seaweed, wastewater from rum, and sheep poo. The bacteria breaks down the mixture, producing methane that is captured and used as fuel. Her team then uses that biofuel to run a generator, which charges an electric car It was kind of scary. It was high stress, and at two o'clock in the morning when the car finally started charging on the sargassum bags It was just like a moment of absolute gratitude It's still experimental, and figuring out how to collect, transport, and process mountains of seaweed to make the whole operation economical is a much bigger challenge.