Sargassum outlook update, by USF Optical Oceanography Lab – December 2018

The maps below show Sargassum abundance, with warm colors representing high abundance. In December 2018, the bloom intensity in the Caribbean Sea (CS) continued to decrease slightly from November, but the amount of Sargassum in the Central West Atlantic (CWA) increased slightly from November, which also represented a historical record for the month of November. Following the dominant ocean currents, the CWA Sargassum will be transported to the northeastern Caribbean in the following months. Meanwhile, the southern Caribbean (including coastal waters off Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago) may be largely free of Sargassum. While it is too early to predict the bloom situation in spring and summer 2019, if the current CWA condition continues to end of January, it is likely that 2019 may be another major bloom year (similar to 2018) for the CS.
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.