‘Slimy Stuff’ Reported on Gulf Coast Beaches – Not Oil, It’s This

(KMDL-FM) If I am reading my college curriculum calendars correctly, the students who attend LSU in Baton Rouge just wrapped up spring break. While students at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and McNeese State won't take their "beach break" until early April. Let's just hope that the "slimy stuff" that LSU spring breakers reported will be gone by the time the others arrive in a couple of weeks.

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We are not that far removed, at least in our mindset, from the Deepwater Horizon incident in the Gulf. But in reality, as of April 20th, that horrific incident will be 16 years in the past. But for a lot of us, we still remember what the Gulf Coast beaches looked like after the fire and spill.

Is Oil From Deepwater Horizon Still Washing Up on Gulf Coast Beaches?

Perhaps you were on vacation when crews set up along the beaches of places like Gulf Shores, Perdido Key, Pensacola Beach, Navarre Beach, and others, patrolling the sand and picking up giant tarballs that were a result of that spill.

Those haunting memories of 2010 and the years that followed probably played into the reports of "oil on the beach" during spring break. But that slimy, brown-looking stuff you hopefully avoided stepping in on the sand isn't oil at all. It's seaweed.

The good news is that yes, it is just seaweed. The bad news is this: there is a lot of seaweed that could be heading for Gulf Coast beaches, as well as some of the more popular beaches in the Caribbean.

Gulf Coast Beaches Could Be Inundated With Stinky Slime This Spring

Scientists who study such things say that 13 million tons of Sargassum, a naturally occurring floating algae, is currently drifting on the ocean currents toward the beaches of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Mexico.

The peak of the "slime storm" should arrive in May and June, but we're already getting reports of a brownish-black snot-like substance stinking up the beaches. And yes, the rotting Sargassum does stink. It smells like rotting eggs or a bad beer fart.

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The seaweed itself is not harmful to you or your family. However, it can contain thousands of jellyfish larvae. Those larvae can sting you, so it's not advised that you handle, step on, or basically interact with the seaweed.

Some beaches have even taken the step of posting a "beach walking alert" just so guests will be mindful not to step in the rotting piles of goo. So, if you're heading to the beach for spring break or you have plans for May and June, you now know that's not oil.

And if you don't want to travel so far and still have a unique beach experience, have you considered these as an option?