BRADENTON BEACH, Fla. — A blanket of seaweed that spans roughly 5,000 miles has been heading toward the east coast of Florida.

And there has been some concern if it could even wrap around the state and approach Bay area beaches.

University of South Florida student Hunter Jensen is a senior majoring in political science. But he has a passion for Florida’s ecosystem, which has inspired him to take several environmental science classes.

What You Need To Know

  •  Hunter Jensen has been tracking and researching where the 5,000 mile seaweed mass is heading

  •  Jensen has seen some of the bloom at Key West and on Bradenton Beach in Anna Maria Island

  •  He says most of where the bloom will head is dependent on the current and the tide

  • He says we can expect to see some seaweed at Anna Maria Island but says the Tampa Bay Region is not as susceptible to other areas in Florida

“So what we do as political science majors we analyze policies and get involved in politics,” Jensen said. “It’s important that the bills that are getting passed are promoting sustainable development and promoting the sustainability of our environment.”

Recently, Jensen and his friend Christopher Howet were looking at some washed-up sponge and seagrass on the beach.

“Its really cool you can find this all over the place,” he said.

These two care about the waters of Florida, especially Jensen.

“I grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia and I grew up in a very polluted environment, said Jensen. “And kind of saw what overdevelopment and unsustainable development does to a location when I came to Florida. Little over a year ago I saw how clean the environment here is.”

He visits the beach often, but on this day he’s specifically looking for seaweed.

While scientists say the biggest impact from the 5,000-mile seaweed bloom is expected to be on the southeast coast of Florida, Hunter has already found some floating in the Gulf of Mexico.

“The giant sea blob, so it’s called sargassum, it’s referred to as brown seaweed and it’s also a type of algae,” Jensen said.

He says the outflows from Florida’s rivers feed the sargassum, and it grows.

“Once it’s floating on the surface, it blocks out the sunlight,” he said. “Then eventually sinks and it could smother the seagrass, meaning all the restorations we’ve been doing in Tampa Bay, I don’t expect the sargassum to be as bad as in the Florida Keys.”

He says it can be detrimental to not only the coral and seagrass that are vital to our waters but also to our economy.

“When they come to Florida they expect to see this clear water, they expect to see a vibrant ecosystem,” he said. “They expect to hang out in some mangroves so it’s really important that we preserve that because if not, we do not have an economy and we will damage the reputation of our state,” he said.

After examining the current seaweed situation, Jensen heads home to look at his own research maps he created.

“We might see it worse in places like Anna Maria Island versus Fort Myers but it all depends on the currents but the Tampa Bay region is not as susceptible to the seaweed mass as say the Florida keys or Miami or even Cuba,” he said.