WASHINGTON, D.C.— Although clumps of seaweed have been washing up on beaches along Florida’s East Coast, the situation hasn’t been as bad as some researchers initially predicted. 

University of South Florida Professor Chuanmin Hu says there was an unusually high quantity of seaweed in the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt back in March.

“Our prediction was not right back in March," he said. "So let me admit that — nature is really hard to predict. In most of the years, our prediction is right — 80% I would say because our prediction is based on history. But, this year is really abnormal, it’s weird."

Hu and other USF researchers use NASA satellites to track the mat of sargassum, or seaweed, which some media outlets nicknamed the “blob.”  He says they are not sure why the amount of seaweed has been decreasing in the eastern Atlantic over the past couple months.

“We still are doing research on that," Hu said. "That's not fully understood. So what happened this month continued the trend from last month."

Overall, experts say the seaweed blooms have been increasing in recent years, and say river discharges, African dust, and smoke can be contributing factors.

“The two major factors are ocean circulation and wind, but how they play together to impact the inter annual change of seaweed that's a big question,” Hu said.

Although Hu says this year’s bloom is still unusually large, there’s good news for beachgoers. 

“The Florida Keys and east coast of Florida will get most of the seaweed, but even in those parts of Florida in the next few weeks, next month, the amount will decrease substantially," he said. "On the west coast (of Florida), we’re largely spared from the big bands to Naples, we will see very little seaweed."

Hu says the largest bloom ever recorded was in 2018.