Sargassum, the smelly nemesis of beach vacations, has become a self-sustaining disaster that will keep coming back

Communities and entrepreneurs are experimenting with ways to turn this nuisance into a valuable resource.

By: Xing Zhou, Georgia Institute of Technology; Annalisa Bracco, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Joseph Montoya, Georgia Institute of Technology, The Conversation

Outlets: The Conversation

Published: July 28, 2026

Words: 1,219

Last Updated: 3 weeks, 1 day ago

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By Xing Zhou, Georgia Institute of Technology; Annalisa Bracco, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Joseph Montoya, Georgia Institute of Technology

You’ve been planning your dream beach vacation for months, only to arrive and find the shoreline covered in large piles of smelly, brown seaweed, with even more floating offshore. It’s disappointing, for sure – and increasingly common.

Since 2011, summer scenes like this have played out on beaches in South Florida and throughout …

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