Center for Fisheries Research & Development
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Pelagic Sargassum as Essential Fisheries Habitat in the Northern Gulf of Mexico:
Utilization by Important Fisheries Species
What is Sargassum?
- commonly referred to as “weed lines”
- pelagic brown algae found in the U. S. primarily in the western Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico
- uses gas-filled “pneumatocysts” to float within the upper meter or so of the ocean
- “reproduces” by fragmentation
- two predominant species:
- Sargassum natans
- Sargassum fluitans
