Smelly Seaweed

 I am a year or more behind in my reading. Trying to catch up, but it’s a strain.

Reading the January/February 2020 issue of Discover magazine. an article titled Smells Like Sargassum interested me. That is to say, interested me more than the others.

For in 1945 I moved with my parents to Galveston. The beach was soon this boy’s playground. I explored the many and varied facets of that wonderful kingdom.

Shells were more plentiful then, and I accumulated quite a collection. And at some time during the years a flood of sargassum seaweed piled up on the beach.

We learned that it drifted in from an area in the Atlantic called the Sargasso Sea.

In addition to its obvious odor there was an item of unusual interest. A small fish, bodily conformation similar to the angel fish that I caught with a tiny piece of shrimp on a very small hook. In contrast to the angelfish’s black and white stripes, the smaller Sargassum fish was decorated with a yellow background marked with a brown pattern that provided perfect camoflauge in the sargassum grass.

But most interesting was that this cute little fellow WALKED on his pectoral fins, through and across the seaweed.

I presumptuously referred to it as the Sargassum fish – for that seems a logical appellation. But in truth, I can’t remember the proper name – even though my father took the time to consult references at the Rosenberg Library and learn what it is called.

I took pride in those distant times in knowing its name. Today I feel dismay that I cannot remember.

C’est la vie. C’est la vie de nombreuses années.

The article suggests – asserts, that the Sargassum seaweed belt was first noticed in 2011.

I don’t mean to be picky, and I hope that I’m not regarded as pedantic – but I must protest that this noisome abundance was plentiful on the Galveston beaches before 1950. And the origin of the yellow mess was known.

And after my migration to Corpus Christi in 1951 I discovered the ubiquitous annoyance on the beaches of Padre Island, and throughout the 1950’s.

But I am grateful for the discussion – memories of years gone by ...