Underwater photographer Stephen Frink has been capturing stunning marine wonders off Key Largo since the late 1970s. However, it’s what he sees above the water that raises alarms.
“It’s certainly worse than it has been,” Frink said about this summer’s sargassum problem. “The sargassum this time is different. It’s not a vibrant mass of life coming to shore. It’s just dead material.”
Throughout the Keys, south to southeast winds have pushed the seaweed into canals and onto shores. As it breaks down, fish get trapped and oxygen levels drop, creating an unsightly and foul mess.
“I had a friend who stayed in an ocean view room at Ocean Reef. He had to ask to move to a non-ocean front room because the smell was so bad,” Frink said.
Sargassum during this time of year has been happening for hundreds of years. Off shore, the seaweed is quite beneficial.
“Out at sea, it’s a floating habitat,” said Shelly Krueger, a marine biologist with the University of Florida and a Monroe County extension agent. “Once it gets close to shore, you see fish kills because it gets pushed into canals or coves. As it breaks down, it sucks oxygen out of the water.”
Krueger, based in Key West, writes a monthly column for Keys Weekly. She has received calls from concerned residents about the sargassum buildup in the Lower Keys. Recently, the smell and accumulation of excess sargassum on the beaches forced officials to relocate the annual Juneteenth event from its usual spot at the historic African Cemetery at Higgs Beach to city hall.
Still, Krueger notes that what we’re experiencing is not as severe as other places.
“Compared to the huge problems they’re facing elsewhere, like in Martinique, Barbados and Mexico, this is a temporary issue and probably the new normal,” Krueger said. “It is wind-driven.
“This is a new thing since 2011, called the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt. Before 2011, large amounts of pelagic sargassum were mostly found in the Sargasso Sea. But since then, scientists have seen a huge accumulation just above the equator, stretching thousands of miles across the Atlantic.”
“So, this is a new source of sargassum, something we’ve never seen before,” Krueger added.
At Tavernier’s Harry Harris Park, piles of sargassum line the shore and the boat ramp. This year’s seaweed mass is affecting coastal activities.
“I had lunch yesterday at the Key Largo Fisheries. I wanted to show a friend where to find the nurse sharks and tarpon in that little basin. The water was so thick there that you couldn’t see two feet down,” Frink said.
This decomposing mess is annoying, ugly and smelly, but it won’t last forever.
“I think it’s pretty thick everywhere right now,” Frink said. “We’re stuck for a few weeks, no matter what the wind does.”
“Basically, as soon as the wind changes, it will go back offshore,” Krueger explained.
Krueger has written a blog about this new sargassum issue. You can read it by clicking the link: https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/monroeco/2026/06/17/2026-sargassum-inundation-event/
