April 2022 broke record volumes of sargassum, totaling 14 million tons between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic. A bonus of training local fishermen to collect sargassum is putting a dent in over-fishing practices across the Caribbean. After removal, sargassum often ends up in landfills (which prompts further questions on the effects of decaying sargassum on runoff and groundwater pollution). The company has developed a cost-efficient, patented method to sink sargassum at great depths (>1,000m). The objective is to sequester millions of tons of carbon and methane emissions, which would otherwise be released when sargassum makes landfall.

Source: The Guardian July 02, 2022 04:10 UTC