According to past experience, a winter bloom in the central West Atlantic often evolved into a major bloom in the Caribbean Sea in spring and summer. The past month of January to March 2018 showed the largest bloom in the central West Atlantic, as compared to the same months in
history. The eastern Caribbean islands have already experienced many beaching events, and in the coming months there is a high chance that the bloom in this entire region and Sargassum beaching will continue to at least August 2018.

Wang, M., and C. Hu (2017), Predicting Sargassum blooms in the Caribbean Sea from MODIS observations, Geophys. Res. Lett., 44, 3265–3273, doi:10.1002/ 2017GL072932.
University of South Florida Optical Oceanography Lab
(mengqiu@mail.usf.edu)

Disclaimer: The information bulletin is meant to provide a general outlook of bloom probability for the Caribbean Sea. By no means should it be used for commercial purpose, or used for predicting bloom conditions for a specific location or beach. The authors of this bulletin, as well as USF and NASA, take no responsibility for improper use or interpretation of the bulletin.