Petition · Take me to your leader.

Stop Sargassum offshore — before it hits our beaches, canals and businesses.

We are asking federal and state leaders for one thing: a lawful, monitored pathway to intercept documented shoreward-bound Sargassum at sea. Sign, then send this to one neighbor.

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Goal: 100,000

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greenDispersed offshore/amberConverging nearshore/redPersistent accumulation/blackShoreline emergency/

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Four moves, in order. Each one makes the next person easier to reach — and makes the record harder for any official to ignore.

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What this is, and what we are asking for

Sargassum is living offshore habitat. But when extraordinary accumulations reach shallow water, canals and beaches, they become a costly environmental, health and community emergency. Join the united voice demanding a lawful federal pathway to intercept documented shoreward-bound Sargassum before it reaches shore.

The problem

A 37-million-ton belt, documented inundations, and the point where habitat turns into hazard.

See the evidence

The policy ask

A lawful, monitored federal pathway to intercept documented shoreward-bound mats offshore.

Read the ask

The solution

Deep booms, wildlife safeguards and a circular economy that turns landed biomass into value.

See how it works

Health and impact

Hydrogen sulfide exposure, tourism losses and what it costs the communities living with it.

Understand the impact

The turn

An ocean crisis

Ecological dead zones

Dense mats block light and oxygen, driving seagrass loss and burying turtle nesting beaches under decomposing biomass.

Economic & health suffocation

Rotting Sargassum releases hydrogen sulfide. Cleanup, cancellations and infrastructure damage land on local budgets.

A 37-million-ton belt — the largest macroalgal bloom on Earth, visible from space.

From seaweed to shelter

Sargassum-fiber block is lighter than concrete and holds interior temperatures down — a use for what we intercept.

Energy from the harvest

Processed biomass yields methane. Landed volume becomes a feedstock instead of a landfill tipping fee.

High-value biomaterials

Bio-leather, organic fertilizer and food-grade thickeners are already being produced from harvested Sargassum.

Join the movement

HazardResource

The shift

Let’s shift our mindset.

From cleanup to circular solutions.
From waste to value.
From vulnerability to resilience.

Soil health

Landed biomass, rinsed and composted, returns nutrients to farms instead of rotting on the sand.

Innovation

Bio-bricks, biogas and bioplastics — value engineered out of the same mats we intercept.

Green jobs

Captains, crews, haulers and processors paid to work the problem, not just clean up after it.

Resilience

Coastlines, canals and local economies that absorb a bloom season without shutting down.

The core distinction

Habitat offshore. Hazard nearshore.

We are not asking the public to choose between wildlife and communities. We are demanding a protected, transparent way to intercept extraordinary shoreward-bound accumulations before living offshore habitat becomes decomposing nearshore pollution.

GREENHabitat

Dispersed offshore

Living pelagic habitat. Juvenile fish, turtles, crabs and endemic species depend on it. Nothing should be collected here.

Correct response: Protect and monitor. No intervention.

Distance to shore

> 50 nm

Mat density

Dispersed

Dissolved O₂

Normal

Intervention

None

HabitatIncreasing riskHigh riskHazard

Collection here would remove living habitat. This stage is a protect-only zone.

What is measured

Eight facts, each with a source

C01 · Atlantic basin / Southeast Florida · June 2026

USF's satellite record documented severe southeast Florida beaching during the 2026 season, with the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt at extraordinary abundance.

[S01] University of South Florida Optical Oceanography Laboratory

C02 · U.S. South Atlantic · 2003-2012 rulemaking, still in force

Pelagic Sargassum harvest is prohibited in South Atlantic federal waters south of the North Carolina-South Carolina boundary; north of it, harvest is tightly limited by area, season, observer, gear and annual-weight restrictions.

[S02] NOAA Fisheries [S05] NOAA Fisheries [S06] NOAA Fisheries

C03 · Big Pine Key, Florida Keys · FIU monitoring report

After canal removal at Big Pine Key Canal 266, organic content fell from 31.9% to 1.0% and average sediment depth from 154 cm to 40 cm; conditions later moved back toward baseline.

[S08] Florida International University

C04 · South Florida · 2025-2026

Decomposing Sargassum emits measurable sulfur compounds, and stranding studies document arsenic mobilization and enterococci in beach wrack.

[S12] University of Miami [S13] University of Miami / FIU [S14] Environmental Monitoring and Assessment [S15] Exposure and Health

Open the full evidence library

Scale

What the satellites and the shoreline show

University of South Florida satellite view of Floating Algae Density, April 2026. Circled zones mark the highest-density belts tracking toward inhabited coastlines.

A resort shoreline where a dark brown Sargassum front has replaced turquoise water. Documentary photograph.

A beach blanketed shore-to-horizon in thick decomposing Sargassum. Documentary photograph.

3 nm

Atlantic state-water boundary

Federal pilot begins seaward of this line

9 nm

Gulf state-water boundary

Requires a separately designed pathway

31.9% → 1.0%

Canal organic content after removal

Big Pine Key Canal 266, FIU monitoring

$Millions

Modeled U.S. economic hit

NOAA NCCOS: PR, USVI and coastal Florida

The ask

A lawful federal pathway for selective, monitored collection of documented shoreward-bound Sargassum.

An Atlantic pilot seaward of Florida's three-nautical-mile state-water boundary.
A separately designed Gulf pathway beyond the nine-nautical-mile boundary.
Collection only of documented shoreward-bound accumulations — never dispersed, healthy offshore habitat.
Independent observers, wildlife safeguards and published bycatch results.
Transparent public reporting of tonnage, cost, ecological monitoring and outcomes.

What we are not asking for

We are not asking to strip the Sargasso Sea.
We are not asking to harvest living offshore habitat for profit.
We are not asking to weaken protections for turtles, juvenile fish or endemic species.
We are not asking anyone to choose between wildlife and communities.

Read the full policy ask

Documented cases

It is already happening, and it is recorded

Monroe County, Florida

2026 Florida Keys inundation

USF reported severe southeast Florida beaching; Monroe County described a widespread Keys influx contributing to fish kills; Key West moved a public event because of odor; residents and marine professionals supplied dated photographs and accounts.

Big Pine Key, Florida

Big Pine Key Canal 266

FIU treatment/control monitoring found organic content fell from 31.9% to 1.0% and average sediment depth from 154 cm to 40 cm after removal; conditions later moved back toward baseline.

Miami Beach, Florida

Miami Beach removal operations

The city reports large 2026 removal volumes, daily management constraints, hotspot geography and the regulatory difficulty of in-water collection.

North Miami Beach, Florida

North Miami Beach health concerns

Florida DOH evaluated community complaints about rotting-seaweed odor and rashes and advised respiratory-sensitive people to avoid strong odors, while judging long-term open-air risk minimal.

Five ways to move

The signal wall

We monitor Reddit, Facebook, X and regional news, archive screenshots so the record survives deletion, and publish nothing without moderator review.

Open the signal wall Live conditions and data sources