Tons of seaweed washing up on southern beaches. Will Grand Strand be affected?

Tons of slimy, brownish, smelly bands of algae float along the southern Atlantic Ocean, where it has washed ashore in Florida, Texas and the Caribbean.

But year after year, that algae — better known as seaweed — has missed the Grand Strand beaches. And while the Myrtle Beach area does get some seaweed, it doesn’t compare to other coastal states. Why?

The University of South Florida estimated that 30 million tons of brown seaweed, also known as sargassum, is floating toward Florida’s coast. Some of it has already coated Miami’s beaches.

The sunshine state set the record for the most seaweed washed up onshore which cost the city of Miami $3.9 million to clean up in 2022.

But the heavy mounds of sargassum along white sand beaches haven’t been a typical sight for the Grand Strand, and probably won’t be this year either.

The only thing that has Paul Gayes, executive director at Coastal Carolina University’s Marine Science program, not so certain is the amount of sargassum in the sea right now.

“With the 40% projection, you kind of get in uncharted territories there about what that impact will be,” Gayes said of the estimate. “The circulation would say we should be relatively buffered, but things are not necessarily behaving like they used to.”

Myrtle Beach’s geography is fortunate enough to not get hit by the sargassum band. At least not nearly as bad as in Florida.

North Myrtle Beach Beach Supervisor Monty Reed said that seaweed on beaches has only been an issue for North Myrtle Beach a handful of times in the 19 years he has served, but Public Works has always gotten it cleaned up.

The Grand Strand and all of South Carolina are too far away from the Gulf stream that pushes sargassum from the Caribbean on to beaches south of South Carolina, Gayes said.

But this is predicted based on currents.

Currents may change and beachgoers may see occasional piles of seaweed in the event of a hurricane or some other force that can change the currents.

If sargassum does end up on the beach, it’s a headache to clean up and an even bigger headache to smell.

Sargassum releases a hydrogen sulfide gas giving it an eye-burning, rotten egg smell when washed ashore.

But disposing of sargassum opens a plethora of new issues including the release of methane, a greenhouse gas, when it gets dumped into landfills.

Gayes warned that just because the Grand Strand historically has not seen as much seaweed on its beaches as Florida, it may not always be that way.

“We used to see hurricanes come to the coast and they downgrade a bit when they started hitting the coast and now you’re seeing them explode,” Gayes said. “I think we all have to be a little better – science has to provide better information, more detailed information that we can predict better on – and we have to expect to change.”

This story was originally published May 14, 2025 at 1:33 PM.