Huge blankets of seaweed are smothering coastlines from the Caribbean to Mexico

Some 27 million metric tons of self-sustaining sargassum have been recorded in the Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico in July, according to a report released Friday by the University of South Florida's Optical Oceanography Lab.

Sargassum is coming ashore in record amounts, spooking visitors in areas that depend heavily on tourism

waths of seaweed are blanketing the beaches and coastlines of the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, suffocating shorelines and snuffing out marine life while spooking visitors in areas that depend heavily on tourism.

The prickly seaweed sargassum covers miles of coastline, releasing a foul smell as it rots onshore.

Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico beaches swathed in record levels of seaweed  AP News

Swaths of sargassum are blanketing the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, suffocating shorelines and snuffing out marine life while spooking visitors in areas that depend heavily on tourism

The seaweed — a stinky, brown algae known as sargassum — has plagued Mexico and the broader region for more than a decade, but this year’s forecast is setting records.