So far the Caribbean Sea (CS) has experienced a record-high Sargassum bloom ever since January 2018. The maps below show Sargassum abundance, with warm colors representing high abundance. In October 2018, the overall bloom intensity continued to decrease from September, but still comparable to the bloom extent in October 2015. There is also significant amount of Sargassum in the central West Atlantic, which will be transported to the CS ocean currents. Based on these observations we predict that although the bloom intensity in the Caribbean will continue to decrease in November, the northern CS will still see considerable amount of Sargassum. The southern CS will be nearly free of large Sargassum mats, and by December most Sargassum mats in the CS may have dissipated.
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.