A dramatic seaweed invasion has hit coastlines across Florida and the Caribbean, killing wildlife - here's what it looks like on the ground

The first Sargassum invasion in the Caribbean was recorded in 2011, according to the BBC.

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Source: BBC

The most recent invasions began in July, and experts say they may last through September.

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Source: BBC

The island of Barbados declared a national emergency in August because of the seaweed invasion.

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The seaweed can pile up to 7 meters thick (over 22 feet) on coastlines.

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"We've had mass mortality of sea turtles that have gotten trapped under ever-thickening piles," Hazel Oxenford, a Barbados-based fisheries biologist at the University of the West Indies, told The New Republic. "When the turtles try to come up for air, they drown."

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Source: The New Republic

In its natural habitat in the Sargasso Sea, the floating algae provides a habitat for fish and crustaceans, which seabirds and sharks then feed on.

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Researchers struggling to understand these Sargassum blooms have said more research is needed, especially into the role of nitrogen pollution and ocean acidification.

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Source: BBC

"The issue is that we never know what it's going to be like — we can have a week or two weeks where it's very clear and then all of a sudden overnight it washes in," Larry Basham, chief operating officer of Elite Island Resorts, told the BBC.

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Source: BBC

"It’s yet another man-made problem that’s been thrown at the Caribbean that isn’t our doing," Oxenford told The New Republic.

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Source: The New Republic