Sea Turtle Saragussm Mat

Birds of all kinds search the sargassum for these species to eat.

Sea turtle saragussm mat.

October 16 2015 the young loggerhead sea turtle its ridged shell only a few inches across is perched calmly among the floating islands of large brown seaweed known as sargassum open ocean stretches for miles around these large free floating seaweed mats where myriad creatures make their home. The algae clumps can be a few inches to a couple of miles long and also provides other sea life with a source of food. Green sea turtles in particular are often found in sargassum mats in which they find shelter food and water. At sea sargassum provides vital shelter for a variety of species.

The same currents that corral the sargassum help steer the hatchling sea turtles into the sargasso sea which is about 4 1 million square kilometers a vast nursery where they find ample food and protection from predators. Many species call sargassum home including sea turtle hatchlings fish shrimp crabs and more. Sargassum hildebrandtii grunow herbarium type specimen somalia before 1889. In the sargasso sea alexandra gulick and nerine constant collected data on water temperature in sargassum mats.

Sargassum is a genus of brown class phaeophyceae macroalgae in the order fucales numerous species are distributed throughout the temperate and tropical oceans of the world where they generally inhabit shallow water and coral reefs and the genus is widely known for its planktonic free floating species. Unfortunately these mats of sargassum occasionally wash ashore a problem that has made the news over the last few years. These mats come from the sargasso sea in the north atlantic ocean which is surrounded by four ocean currents. Turtles use sargassum mats as nurseries.

Five species of sea turtles that pass through the atlantic have been recorded there and for at least three of these species the loggerhead caretta caretta green turtle chelonia mydas and hawksbill eretmochelys imbricata the sargasso sea is vitally important. Most blend in with the sargassum their bodies camouflaging. Young turtle hatchlings even hitch rides on these floating mats as they venture into the open ocean. The sargasso sea is a vast patch of ocean named for a genus of free floating seaweed called sargassum while there are many different types of algae found floating in the ocean all around world the sargasso sea is unique in that it harbors species of sargassum that are holopelagi this means that the algae not only freely floats around the ocean but it reproduces vegetatively on the high seas.

A number of turtles left the north atlantic subtropical gyre and entered the sargasso sea a. But when the algae comes. Sea turtles are generally found in the waters over continental shelves.