Sargassum forecast: Saint-Martin at medium risk

0

In its pelagic sargassum stranding monitoring and forecasting bulletin for the northern islands released last Thursday, Météo France reverses the risk level trend to medium for the territory of Saint-Martin and high for that of Saint-Barthélemy.

Very many rafts are still detected over at least 3000km to the east of the Caribbean arc. These detections are currently in weak and disorderly currents, but their large number is enough to predict groundings on our islands. Many small rafts often organized in more or less long filaments, especially to the south-east of Saint-Martin, are pushed towards the territory and the Saba channel. They are the source of a more or less repetitive arrival on the east coast of Saint-Barthélemy and part of Saint-Martin, especially in the Dutch part. Small banks of sargassum being brought together during the analysis of satellite images touched here and there, the east and north-east of Saint-Martin at the end of last week. In view of the latest detections, we can still expect groundings in the next fortnight. Sargassum algae are still present offshore in the Atlantic and still over a very large area. Not all of them will make it to Saint-Martin, but they will constitute a reservoir for next season.

In the equatorial zone, a few detections over the last week seem to announce algae upwellings from the south for the West Indies. A new reading of measurements of the concentration of H2S and NH3 over 24 hours relating to the groundings of Sargassum algae was carried out in the Baie de Cul-de-Sac, in Orient Bay opposite the Mont Vernon residence, in Quartier d Orleans (Coralita Road) and Lucas Bay. The measurements on the Cul-de-Sac site 5 meters from the groundings drop from 2,4ppm to 0,5ppm and from 1,1ppm to a reading below the detection threshold at the level of dwellings. _VX

About author

No comments