At sea sargassum provides vital shelter for a variety of species.
Sea turtle saragussm mat.
Most blend in with the sargassum their bodies camouflaging.
These mats come from the sargasso sea in the north atlantic ocean which is surrounded by four ocean currents.
Sargassum is a genus of brown class phaeophyceae macroalgae in the order fucales numerous species are distributed throughout the temperate and tropical oceans of the world where they generally inhabit shallow water and coral reefs and the genus is widely known for its planktonic free floating species.
Many species call sargassum home including sea turtle hatchlings fish shrimp crabs and more.
Turtles use sargassum mats as nurseries.
A number of turtles left the north atlantic subtropical gyre and entered the sargasso sea a.
Birds of all kinds search the sargassum for these species to eat.
Five species of sea turtles that pass through the atlantic have been recorded there and for at least three of these species the loggerhead caretta caretta green turtle chelonia mydas and hawksbill eretmochelys imbricata the sargasso sea is vitally important.
Unfortunately these mats of sargassum occasionally wash ashore a problem that has made the news over the last few years.
Most turtles steered clear of the continental shelf but there was a lot of variation in their routes.
During the first three to five years of life sea turtles spend most of their time in the pelagic zone floating in seaweed mats.
Sargassum provides a safe place for sea turtle yearlings to float on during their early days of life.
The algae clumps can be a few inches to a couple of miles long and also provides other sea life with a source of food.
The sargasso sea is a vast patch of ocean named for a genus of free floating seaweed called sargassum while there are many different types of algae found floating in the ocean all around world the sargasso sea is unique in that it harbors species of sargassum that are holopelagi this means that the algae not only freely floats around the ocean but it reproduces vegetatively on the high seas.
Sea turtles are generally found in the waters over continental shelves.
In the sargasso sea alexandra gulick and nerine constant collected data on water temperature in sargassum mats.
Sargassum hildebrandtii grunow herbarium type specimen somalia before 1889.
Green sea turtles in particular are often found in sargassum mats in which they find shelter food and water.
The same currents that corral the sargassum help steer the hatchling sea turtles into the sargasso sea which is about 4 1 million square kilometers a vast nursery where they find ample food and protection from predators.
