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And researchers from the sea Education Association and Eckerd College, are leaving this south Florida marina on a critical mission.
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To search for the giant masses of seaweed, multiplying it record-breaking levels, and barreling right for Florida's beaches.
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As we head to sea, we start to see clumps of it, the team wants to scoop up some of this latest wave, called sargassum, moving in patches so large they're visible by satellite and almost twice the width of the continental U.S.
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What are you trying to accomplish by coming out here? - Well we're trying to understand why these blooms are occurring in the first place, and we think it has something to do with the fact that not all sargassum is the same.
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The seaweed is already invading hot spots, from the Keys to Miami beach, creating an increasingly ugly and nasty smelling mess.
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What we've already witnessed on the shores of Florida? Is that the tip of the iceberg? - I think it's just beginning, we probably have months worth of that coming.
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But to get answers, they're collecting three different types. - These are some of the best clumps we've had all day.
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And measuring factors like salt content. - This looks great, it's 37.9 parts per thousand, and 26.5 celsius.
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Water temperature and other conditions that might explain why it's exploded in size to 13 million tons of the algae.
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Right now, we're about six miles offshore from Florida, look over my shoulder right now, at just blankets of sargassum in fact, no matter which direction we look, it's all over here.
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But where we are, the sargassum barely even registers on satellites, but if you look further south and east all those blues and reds and greens are substantially larger patches, moving this way, back on land,
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Vacationers bracing for what's to come. - You don't like to walk through it, and when it's past your ankle, it gets really creepy. - It looks gross, it's really unattractive.
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Researchers like Jeff Schell and Amy Siuda point out that sargassum may create a rotting smell and eyesore on land.
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But in the ocean, it's a vital component of the ecosystem, supporting life like this frog fish, and offering an oasis for organisms.
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I fell in love with sargassum, because of the fish and the shrimp and the crabs, it's the only natural floating ecosystem on the planet.
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We'll be changing the water in each of these jars. - Now all these samples are being examined in a race of science versus nature.
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That windrow of sargassum extends for miles in both directions, if that windrow is aimed at a beach, that's a game over, like that sargassum is going to start burying the beach like that.
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Ultimately the team hoping to unlock some clues to a deepening maritime mystery, Sam Brock, NBC News, Dania Beach Florida.