Florida Atlantic University
Harbor Branch
Ocean Science Lecture Series

Secrets of the Sargasso Sea
Brian Lapointe, Ph.D.

For over five centuries, the Sargasso Sea has been a subject of lively debate among explorers and scientists alike. Named for its characteristic brown seaweed Sargassum, the boundary of the Sargasso Sea is now defined by the currents that surround this unique "sea without a shore" - also known as the North Atlantic Central Gyre.

Dr. Lapointe will share a number of "secrets" about this mysterious oceanic realm, some of which date back to the historic voyage of Christopher Columbus. He will describe the discovery of Sargassum by early explorers, the phenomenon of the "Bermuda Triangle", and the amazing community of invertebrates and fishes supported by Sargassum "weedlines". Dr. Lapointe will show outtakes of a documentary of the Sargassum community that he and NHK Broadcasting (Tokyo, Japan) collaborated on in 1997. He will close by describing his recent studies of the impacts the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on the "essential fish habitat" provided by pelagic Sargassum.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Brian Lapointe has studied nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus), algal growth, and eutrophication at Harbor Branch for the past 28 years. He has authored over 85 publications in the field of biogeochemistry, algal physiology, and nutrient pollution and is internationally recognized for his work in marine conservation. His early research in the 1980s, supported by the National Science Foundation, focused on the ecology of the pelagic brown seaweed Sargassum. That research showed the importance of coastal nutrient runoff and associated fishes to the productivity and nutrition of Sargassum.

Dr. Lapointe and colleagues from the University of South Florida are currently funded by NASA to use satellite imagery to monitor the abundance and nutrition of pelagic Sargassum in the Gulf of Mexico. This research represents major progress in our understanding of the variability of Sargassum, particularly the role of nutrients from the Mississippi River plume to blooms of Sargassum in the Gulf of Mexico. This research will help management of coastlines from Texas to Florida, which have been increasingly plagued by accumulations of excessive Sargassum biomass in recent decades.

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