On our travels over the past few months we have been seeing a lot of weed in the sea

 

On our Atlantic crossing we sailed through large acres of weed spread out in lines - like train tracks

 

When we visited Barbados we went onto the west (Atlantic) coast and found lots of weed piled up on the west facing beaches - making it impossible to paddle - you wouldn't want to swim in the rollers coming off the Atlantic. The resultant pungent smell also made for an unpleasant visit although this was not overwhelming

 

On our visits to the west coast of Martinique we also came across lots of weed - some places worse than others dependent on whether there was a protecting reef

 

The worst effects we have observed so far was a small fishing port of Le Marigot on the west coast, where once the trains laden with rum had delivered their cargo to the waiting ships, where the weed had overtaken the port. We saw a fishing boat slowly making its way through the heaving mass floating on the surface - see pictures

 

This will be having an effect on the local economies as less visitors will be wanti