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While animals are resilient, habitat is not, said Bob Shipp, chairman of the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of South Alabama. Past experience, including the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, shows that if a habitat is harmed, the ecosystem will never recover in the same way. The herring that had once been a mainstay of the Alaskan sound never returned after the spill, partly because its foraging habitat had been destroyed, he said. "We could see a whole new system created following the spill, and not a good one," Shipp said, noting a great deal of the Gulf economy relies on robust fisheries of red snapper, grouper, trout, flounder, bluefin tuna and other seafood. "The ripple effect is going to be very extensive," Shipp said. Sargassum is also awash in legend, including stories about vessels getting stuck in the Sargasso Sea's thick algae mats, some covering acres of the water's surface. Gulf of Mexico tourists sometimes view it as trash, annoyed it is not cleared off beloved white sandy beaches. Recently, some people have mistaken dead strands of Sargassum for oil washing up on Gulf beaches. Until about two years ago, it was believed the Sargassum found in the Gulf originated in the North Atlantic. Satellite images and research have shown, however, that the Sargasso Sea actually gets its algae mats from the Gulf, where the seaweed grows and propagates before getting pushed east through the loop current, around Florida and into the central North Atlantic. "That would mean that the Sargassum that's lost in the Gulf will impact the weed in the North Atlantic, the tuna, the fisheries," Powers said. "This could have a larger effect."
[Associated
Press;
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