A dramatic seaweed invasion has hit coastlines across Florida and the Caribbean, killing wildlife - here's what it looks like on the ground

The first Sargassum invasion in the Caribbean was recorded in 2011, according to the BBC.

The most recent invasions began in July, and experts say they may last through September.

Source: BBC

The island of Barbados declared a national emergency in August because of the seaweed invasion.

The seaweed can pile up to 7 meters thick (over 22 feet) on coastlines.

"We've had mass mortality of sea turtles that have gotten trapped under ever-thickening piles," Hazel Oxenford, a Barbados-based fisheries biologist at the University of the West Indies, told The New Republic. "When the turtles try to come up for air, they drown."

Source: The New Republic

In its natural habitat in the Sargasso Sea, the floating algae provides a habitat for fish and crustaceans, which seabirds and sharks then feed on.

Researchers struggling to understand these Sargassum blooms have said more research is needed, especially into the role of nitrogen pollution and ocean acidification.

Source: BBC

"The issue is that we never know what it's going to be like — we can have a week or two weeks where it's very clear and then all of a sudden overnight it washes in," Larry Basham, chief operating officer of Elite Island Resorts, told the BBC.

Source: BBC

"It’s yet another man-made problem that’s been thrown at the Caribbean that isn’t our doing," Oxenford told The New Republic.

Source: The New Republic