Beach & Tourism

Boca Raton Officials Waiting on Approval to Remove Sargassum From Beaches

by
Daniel Nee
May 13, 2026

Boca Raton officials said this week that they are preparing to remove washed-up sargassum from the city’s beaches, as the entire South Florida region battles one of the worst influxes of the smelly seaweed in recorded history.

City spokeswoman Ileana Olmsted said parks maintenance crews cannot begin cleaning the beach until the Gumbo Limbo staff give approval to proceed after conducting a “turtle search” to ensure nests will not be disturbed by equipment used to clean and rake the oceanfront.

“Once the turtle search is completed, our groundskeeper crews use utility vehicles to clear large debris and trash from the seaweed,” said Olmsted. “Once the large debris and trash is removed, a tractor with a large rake mechanism makes passes along the beach and buries the seaweed as it progresses.”

Sargassum accumulations on beaches in Boca Raton, FL, May 2026. (Photo: Boca Daily News)

Beachgoers have been shocked over the seaweed accumulation over the past several weeks, carried in by ocean currents and east winds. Sheets of the seaweed, known as sargassum, was thick within the water column near shore and accumulated en masse on the beach berm itself, at some points producing “hills” of weeds about a foot deep. While the sargassum itself is not dangerous, it can produce a foul odor once it washed up on shore, and it can also trap jellyfish species in the water itself, potentially putting swimmers at risk for a sting.

The problem is not limited to Boca Raton; experts are warning that the upcoming summer season could produce some of the largest sargassum blooms in history, and could ultimately spread around the Florida peninsula into the Gulf of America and west coast beaches, as well as those in neighboring states such as Alabama and Mississippi. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has begun publishing sargassum maps updated on a near-daily basis. In recent weeks, Palm Beach County was almost always listed in the “high” category for inundation, however on Wednesday, southern Palm Beach County slipped into the “low” category after west winds linked to storms on Tuesday pushed a bloom offshore. When winds turn back eastward, however, the seaweed is likely to return.

Likewise, the University of South Florida has started publishing monthly reports on sargassum blooms and forecasts for the forthcoming weeks. In its latest report, issued April 30, showed “increased sargassum amounts in every region shown in the map.”

“By mid-April, sargassum expanded to the entire Caribbean Sea, with substantial amounts transported to the Gulf,” the report said. “Major beaching events must have occurred around the Caribbean and Lesser Antilles islands. Moderate beaching events have also occurred along the southeast coast of Florida.”

Sargassum accumulations on beaches in Boca Raton, FL, May 2026. (Photo: Boca Daily News)

The same report found sargassum “will continue to increase in the coming months.” The year of 2026 was set to be another major bloom year, with sargassum amounts forecast to exceed 75 percent of the historical values, and “likely to be a record year by summer 2026.”

According to researchers, sargassum develops in the Sargasso Sea, a region of the Atlantic Ocean bounded by four currents, centered off Florida with the aforementioned currents stretching from the west coast of Africa, to the east coast of South America, to the Canadian maritimes. Much of the sargassum has been linked to weather patterns bringing in marine vegetation whose growth was spurred by over-fertilization in the rivers of West Africa and the Amazon. The foursome of currents converge with the Gulf Stream to bring the blooms offshore, and they are carried to beaches by predominantly easterly winds.

Once the removal efforts begin, cleaning will be limited to the last high tide line, as tractors do not clean the upper beach or dune line, said Olmsted.

“The beach is cleaned daily, though at times crews face an overwhelming amount of seaweed deposited during changing tides and/or high winds,” she said.