What part of the Atlantic is called the sea of ​​algae? An open sea without shores! See what the "Atlantic Ocean" is in other dictionaries

The Sargasso Sea received its name because of algae - sargassum. The algae themselves are relatively small, but strong winds and high, constant waves knock them into huge “fields” that stretch for many miles across the surface of the sea. There are many legends associated with this sea about ships lost in the sea thickets.

Geography

Located in subtropical latitudes, the Sargasso Sea is the only one in the world that does not have solid shores. It is devoid of clear geographical boundaries, its area is outlined by stripes of currents that form a stagnant center of a closed anticyclonic circulation between the Canary, North Atlantic and Northern Trade Wind currents. Since the boundaries of the currents change from season to season, the size of the sea is not constant and the area varies from 6 to 7 million km 2.
But the depths of the Sargasso Sea are known more precisely: most of it is located in the North American Basin - a depression of the bottom between the underwater North Atlantic Ridge, the continental slope of North America and the underwater rise of the arc of the West Indian Islands, where depths of over 6000 m prevail.
In the central part of the basin is the Bermuda Underwater Plateau, which rises above the surface of the sea and forms the Bermuda Islands of volcanic origin.
It got its name from the accumulations of sargassum algae floating on its surface. The abundance of Sargassum in this area is due to converging surface currents, constant wind and strong waves. That is why the algae are located with their stems in the direction of the prevailing winds and are arranged in relatively regular rows.
Sargassum can be bottom-dwelling, attached to the seabed by roots, or floating, torn from the bottom and held on the surface of the water by small bubbles growing on stems. Because of these bubbles, sargassum is sometimes called sea grapes. When the algae die, the bubbles that support them burst and the plants drown.
The mass of algae floating in the sea is difficult to calculate, but approximately ranges from 4 to 11 million tons.
Sargassum, which formed a “forest” in the middle of the ocean, became a habitat for a variety of marine life: mackerel, flying fish, pipefish, crab, sea turtle, as well as sea anemones and bryozoans.
The exact date of the appearance of the name Sargasso Sea is unknown, but it dates back to the 15th century. The name of the sea was given by the Portuguese, who explored and during their journey reached the circulation of the Atlantic currents (they called it “Volta du Mar”). “Islands” of algae appeared before their eyes. Presumably the authorship of the name belongs to the Spanish naturalist Gonzalo de Oviedo y Valdes (1478-1557), who named this space Sargasso, which means “algae” in Portuguese.
The Sargasso Sea was first crossed in 1492 by the expedition of Christopher Columbus (1450-1451), who described it as a “jar of seaweed.”
The Sargasso Sea is located in the central part of the Atlantic Ocean, at the center of a circulation formed by the Gulf Stream, Canary, North Atlantic and North Trade Wind currents. The largest islands are Bermuda. In the era of sailing ships, it was considered an area of ​​risky navigation due to the accumulation of algae - sargassum.
In the Sargasso Sea there is a huge garbage patch of plastic and other waste, formed by ocean currents that gradually collect garbage thrown into the ocean in one place.
The Sargasso Sea is the site of an amazing natural phenomenon: the spawning of the European river eel. Here, the eel fry hatch from the eggs and, picked up by the Gulf Stream, move for three years along with the warm water mass to Europe or the eastern coast of North America, where they approach the mouths of rivers and rise upstream. After 9-12 years, the eel returns back to the Sargasso Sea, covering about 8 thousand km to spawn.
Bermuda is the only major island in the Sargasso Sea, a British overseas territory about a thousand kilometers off the coast of North America. The majority of the population are descendants of African slaves who once worked here on sugar cane plantations. A third of the population is white. Bermuda is an important financial center off the coast of the United States: thousands of foreign companies, including shipping companies, are registered here. However, the main problem for the islands remains the lack of water: there are no rivers here, and the only source of fresh water, as in colonial times, remains tropical rainfall.
In the era of sailing, sargassum was a serious obstacle for slow-moving caravels, which subsequently gave rise to many legends about islands formed from ships forever stuck in seaweed. Indeed, in the days of sailing ships, ships were found here stuck among seaweed and abandoned by the crew, sometimes with skeletons on board. The names of these ships and the dates of their disappearance and discovery are precisely known.
The southwestern part of the Sargasso Sea is occupied by the Bermuda Triangle region, where, according to supporters of the existence of anomalous phenomena, mysterious disappearances of ships and aircraft occur. At the same time, explanations are put forward, one more bizarre than the other: abductions by “alien pirates”, the activities of the surviving inhabitants of Atlantis, the presence of the “thermal point” of the Earth as a living space object, poisonous gas spread by plants.
Scientists, in response to fantastic assumptions about the reasons for the disappearance of ships and planes, offer more realistic versions of the incidents. The main reason for the emergence of rumors about aliens is considered to be the fact that air lines from the USA and Canada to Europe, Central and South America pass over Bermuda.
In the old days, the water of the Sargasso Sea was exceptionally clean, and its transparency reached 60 m. But this is a long time ago: today the waters are heavily polluted with fuel oil, which accumulates on algae.
In addition, the algae has become the site of a concentration of floating plastic waste, forming an artificial island called the North Atlantic Garbage Patch. It reaches hundreds of kilometers in length and width. Due to the continuous circular movement of ocean currents, garbage thrown into the ocean gradually concentrates in one area, posing a colossal danger to the ecosystems of the Atlantic.

general information

Location: central part of the Atlantic Ocean, between 23-35° N. w. and 30-68° W. d.

Islands: Bermuda.

Large port: Hamilton (Bermuda Island) - 1800 people. (2010).
Languages: English, Portuguese.
Ethnic composition: people from Africa, whites, mestizos.

Religions: Christianity (Protestantism, Methodism, Adventism, Catholicism), Islam.

Currency: Bermudian dollar, US dollar.

Natural boundaries(ocean currents): in the west - the Gulf Stream, in the north - the North Atlantic, in the east - the Canary, in the south - the North Trade Wind.

Numbers

Area: from 6 to 7 million km2.

Width: 1100 km.

Length: 3200 km.
Maximum depth: from 6995 to 7100 m (North American Basin).

Salinity: 36.5-37% ar.

Climate and weather

Marine subtropical.

Average air temperature in January: from +18 to +24°С.

Average air temperature in July: +26°С.

Average surface water temperature in January: in the north +18°С, in the south +25°С.

Average surface air temperature in July: in the northwest +26°С, in the southeast +28°С.

Average annual precipitation: 1000 mm.

Relative humidity: 70-80%.

Economy

Maritime shipping.

Marine fishing.

Attractions

■ Natural: accumulations of Sargassum algae.
■ Bermuda: Fort Hamilton (1870-1876), Mary Jean Mitchell Memorial Garden, Fort Scar (19th century), Bermuda Historical Public Museum (1814), Bermuda Aquarium, Crystal Cave (Crystal and Fantasy), South Natural Park -Shoe Park, Bermuda Botanical Gardens (1898), St. Peter's Church (1612-1713), St. David Lighthouse (1879), Fort St. Catherine (1614), Royal Navy Bermuda Shipyard, Lagoon Park.

Curious facts

■ Sargassum is not endemic only to this area of ​​the Atlantic, but grows in large numbers along the shores of the Caribbean islands, along the west coast of America - from Guiana to the USA.
■ Mention of “meadows in the ocean” can be found in the works of ancient Greek scientists: the naturalist Theophrastus (c. 370-288/285 BC) and the philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC). Also, mention of “algae fields” in the Atlantic is found in the poem of the ancient Roman poet Postumius Rufus Festus Avien (second half of the 4th century BC), who, in turn, referred to the Carthaginian navigator Himilcon (5th century BC .). However, attempts to connect all these ancient observations with the Sargasso Sea have not yet received any scientific confirmation.
■ The Sargasso Sea has been the setting for adventure and science fiction books and films many times. In particular, the French science fiction writer Jules Verne (1828-1905) spoke about the Sargasso Sea in his novel “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” which describes a dive into the sea to a depth of 16 km (then the exact depth of the sea was not yet known).
■ Floating masses of Sargassum were found off the coast of Newfoundland, Portugal and even France. It is known that large accumulations of sargassum have been found in the Pacific Ocean north of the Hawaiian Islands and in the southern part of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans - from the Falkland Islands to Kerguelen Island.
■ The juvenile river eel is so different from the adult that at one time it was considered a separate species of fish and still has a special name - leptocephalus.
■ The North Atlantic Garbage Patch was named after another huge accumulation of garbage - the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the North Pacific Ocean.
■ The concentration of human waste in the North Atlantic Garbage Patch reaches 200 thousand objects per km 2 .

The Sargasso Sea lies in the southwestern part of the North Atlantic, between Bermuda and the West Indies. You can only get here by sea. There are no tourist routes. In area it exceeds half of Europe.
This sea is part of the notorious Bermuda Triangle, where ships and aircraft disappeared without a trace.

The boundaries of the sea are formed by a clockwise rotating warm current - the Gulf Stream, which originates in the Strait of Florida. On its way along the eastern coast of North America, streams depart from it, one of which borders the Sargasso Sea region. The rest of the Gulf Stream moves across the North Atlantic and, as part of the North Atlantic Current, circles the British Isles from the west before finally getting lost among the many currents of the Arctic Ocean.

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When Columbus discovered dense brown algae here in 1492, he mistakenly assumed that land was somewhere nearby. Fortunately, after two weeks, when there was not a drop of rain, not the slightest wind and the sailors on deck were reading by candlelight, the caravels managed to avoid tragic consequences by getting out of their lost place. In Columbus's logbook there is a story about the strange behavior of the compass needle, shifted from the direction of the North Star. And also about a huge tongue of flame that suddenly appeared and fell into the sea. What was it? Experts on anomalous phenomena put forward different versions - about a meteorite, about an underwater UFO, about a school of luminous fish, but they have not come to a consensus.

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So, Columbus’s expedition was lucky, but for many other sailors who failed to correctly assess the danger that the “floating meadows” posed, this place became a “cemetery of lost ships.”

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Since ancient times, this central part of the Atlantic Ocean has had a bad reputation and was considered a trap for ships. Sailboats became entangled in algae, and the crews were doomed to slow death. Sargassum is the name of a giant algae that is abundant here. Its bushes float freely on the surface, forming huge plantations; Numerous air bubbles that form help them stay afloat. If we add the meteorological feature to this feature - long periods of complete calm, then we can understand why, in the era of the sailing fleet, sailors cursed this section of the water area. “The Island of Lost Ships” by science fiction writer Alexander Belyaev tells about it. The 1968 English film “People from the Abyss” directed by Michael Carreras was also created in the fantasy genre, but very vividly reflects the legends of the Sargasso Sea. The heroes of the film encounter man-eating algae and giant crustaceans, and then meet the descendants of the conquistadors, who turned out to be eternal prisoners...

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In July 1912, the Italian three-masted ship Herat left Gilport in Mississippi and headed for Buenos Aires. A storm has begun. The ship drifted into the waters separating Cuba from the Yucatan Peninsula. Then the storm subsided and there was complete calm. “Herat” found itself in a place covered with algae and the remains of broken ships. There was a putrid smell here. The ship stood for two months, and then, when the south wind began to blow, the sails were raised. However, he soon changed his direction and drove the ship again into the same trap. Another four painful months of waiting passed. Food supplies were running out, the crew had lost all hope. Nobody could save him. Suddenly the wind rose at night, and “Herat” managed to escape from terrible captivity. Seven months after sailing from the United States, the ship entered the port of Bridgetown on the island of Barbados. The body was covered with dark traces of algae, which for so long did not want to let go of the victim... Throughout the history of navigation, many dozens of ships have been unable to escape from this hellish trap. This strip of latitudes, into which the Sargasso Sea fits, later became known as the “horse latitudes.” Long calms doomed sailors to idleness. The journey from Europe to America became quite lengthy due to forced downtime. The ships transporting horses stuck here ran out of oats and hay, as well as water - the horses, mad with thirst, broke free from their leashes and threw themselves into the water in a daze. In this sea one could find Spanish treasury galleons, packet boats, clippers, pirate ships, brigantines, whaling ships and yachts. This is how the legend of the Sargasso Sea as a “world of lost ships” or a “cemetery of ships” appeared.

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The Sargasso Sea is an amazing place; its almost stagnant, but clean (transparency up to 60 m) and warm water with a high salt content is inhabited by sargassum algae (within the sea, their reserve is estimated at 4-11 million tons), kept afloat by numerous air bubbles. Thanks to the algae, conditions here resemble a tidal zone rather than the open ocean, and the range of animals that live here, some of which are endemic, clearly illustrates this fact. Partly free-swimming (mackerel, flying fish, pipefish, crabs, sea turtles, etc.), partly attached to algae (anemones, bryozoans, etc.). Columbus also personally removed a small yellow crab from a bunch of seaweed lifted aboard the Santa Maria, which he recorded in the logbook. Now these crabs are called Sargassum crabs. Subsequent expeditions discovered many living creatures living on the algae, including seahorses, shrimp, crabs, newborn sea turtles, etc. Moreover, floating algae gather their “Sargassum” fish, as well as dolphins that hide among them . However, the sea lacks sufficient nutrients to support commercially valuable fish. But many small sea animals, including tiny crabs, shrimp and squid, live in the Sargasso Sea. Strongly attached to algae, many animals will die if deprived of this environment

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Individual algae apparently do not know death, unless they are torn apart during storms. Some scientists believe that there is now a lot of algae floating in the Sargasso Sea, which were seen by Columbus’s satellites. These algae provide shelter for many inhabitants of the Sargasso Sea, which in the process of evolution have adapted to life on the “Sargasso Islands”.

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Thus, the “Sargassum Islands” are a complex community of various animals, vertebrates and invertebrates, herbivores and ferocious predators. They are also interesting as the starting and ending points of the unusual journey undertaken by the European eel. The Sargasso Sea is the spawning ground for the eel, whose life cycle is so amazing that it was not truly understood until the early 20th century.

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Adult eels usually live in freshwater bodies of Europe, where they can remain for years, feeding, growing and creating a fat reserve. The desire to reproduce occurs in the fall in males who have reached 40 cm in length, and in females who have reached 60 cm in length. Their appearance begins to transform: the yellow color gives way to black, and their eyes become significantly larger. Moving mainly at night, they begin to descend along streams and rivers. The desire to return to the sea can be so great that, finding themselves in a lake without access to the sea, they climb out of the water and cross wet meadows in search of a water stream that will lead them to salt water. Once they reach the sea, the eels swim approximately southwest at a depth of 60 m until they reach the edge of the continental shelf, where they dive to about 430 m. It takes them about 80 days to cover a distance of 5630 km. Having reached the Sargasso Sea, they go to a depth of 1220 m, where they spawn and then die.
The eggs develop into tiny, transparent, grass-like creatures so different from their parents that the connection between the two forms was not realized until the late 19th century. Leptocephalus fry rise from the seabed to a depth of approximately 213 m, where they are picked up by Gulf Stream currents and carried east. The return journey takes about two and a half years. Approaching the European coast, they change and begin to look more like adults, although they remain transparent. Some rush through the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean and even the Black Sea. Others move along the northern coast of Europe, sailing into the many estuaries of Western Europe, and some even end up through the Kattegat into the Baltic. Only after spending several months in fresh water do they begin to feed and acquire their usual dark yellow color. After a few years, instinct forces these eels to set off on their last amazing journey to give birth to a new generation in the depths of the Sargasso Sea.

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Many researchers believe that the instinct, which this species cannot get rid of, appeared 100 million years ago, when Europe and North America were separated by a narrow strip of water. In all likelihood, conger eels discovered freshwater sources rich in food and began to migrate. This hypothesis also fits the fact that the petrels that have flown to the Sargasso Sea area circle in one place, as if trying to land on land that now does not exist.

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And scientists devote a lot of effort and money to researching these latitudes. A most interesting phenomenon of the World Ocean was discovered - powerful vortex formations, somewhat similar to atmospheric cyclones. The main source is the Gulf Stream, which passes near the Sargasso Sea. Daughter jets separate from the mother stream and form vortex rings with a diameter of up to 100 kilometers. That is why the crews of sailing ships observed the movement of algae in a circle.

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Today, the Sargasso Sea attracts climatologists because this area greatly influences the weather. And also biologists. Employees of the American Institute of Alternative Bioenergy discovered in its waters about two thousand microorganisms previously unknown to science. The totality of these microbes contains at least one million two hundred thousand genes, the study of which can bring many serious discoveries

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1.11. About sea snakes, squids and other wonders of the Sargasso Sea
1.12. The Tragic Honeymoon of the Eels
1.13. White jets of the Gulf Stream
1.14. Another unpleasant feature of the Bermuda Triangle
1.15. An element with many names
1.16. About radio communications in the Bermuda Triangle area
1.17. "Devil's Sea"
1.18. Deadly whirlwinds
1.19. Instead of an epilogue
1.20. All about the authors

1.10. About the algae that gave the name to the sea

I have visited the Bermuda Triangle many times, and I have always been struck by its unusual surface of the ocean, like a patterned carpet: yellow-green islands of floating algae against a dark blue background of water. Sometimes the dark blue gaps are reduced so much that the impression of a continuous meadow is created.
For a long time, these Atlantic waters with an abundance of algae inspired superstitious fear among sailors, who considered them a trap for ships.
The Bermuda Triangle is only the western part of a peculiar water area of ​​the Atlantic Ocean, named the Sargasso Sea in honor of the floating Sargassum algae.
In the old days, the strip of latitudes into which the Sargasso Sea fits was called the “horse latitudes.” Long calms doomed sailors to inaction. The journey from Europe to America became longer due to forced downtime. On ships transporting horses, the entire supply of oats and hay ran out - the horses died. Their corpses had to be thrown overboard. In a word, the presence of algae in combination with special climatic and hydrographic conditions makes the Sargasso Sea one of the most unique areas of the World Ocean, and in addition, the Bermuda Triangle also has its own distinctive natural features.
Historians believe that the first known navigator to pass through the Sargasso Sea, or rather through its western part, which we call the Bermuda Triangle, was Christopher Columbus.
Passing through a cluster of algae, Columbus was afraid of running aground, believing that they foreshadowed the proximity of land. The Portuguese sailors who sailed with Columbus called this algae "sargasso". The floating algae had green balls - bubbles filled with air, which reminded the Portuguese of the small Sargasso grapes growing in their homeland.
Having convinced himself that there was a bottomless ocean under the islands of Sargassum algae, Columbus suggested that the algae, once attached to the bottom off the coast of the continent or islands, were torn off during a storm and carried into the open ocean. According to modern concepts, there are at least four species of free-floating Sargassum algae: Sargassum bacciferum, Sargassum natans, Sargassum vulgare, Sargassum flnitans. These algae spend their entire lives moving under the influence of wind and currents. In strong winds, sargassum algae forms stripes on the sea surface that extend in the direction of the wind. This phenomenon is caused by the so-called Langmuir circulation, in which, under the influence of wind, vortices with an axis directed along the wind are formed in the water. Neighboring vortices rotate in opposite directions, so alternating stripes of rising and falling water are observed on the surface of the water.
Objects and organisms floating on the surface, including sargassum algae, also accumulate in subsidence zones. These algae reproduce vegetatively.
If you look at the “grapes” that keep the algae afloat through a microscope, then here and there you can see thin spines - the embryos of future leaves. By the way, the shape of the “grapes” can be spherical and elongated, reminiscent of a garden squash. Sargassum algae (S. fluitans) is very beautiful with small thin serrated leaves, decorated like a Christmas tree with graceful float balls. The remaining algae are more massive and coarse, really like pieces of hay or even straw, but still with a green tint.
It is estimated that the mass of free-floating algae in the Sargasso Sea is about 10 million tons. Individuals probably do not know death unless they are torn apart during storms. Famous ocean explorer Rachel Carson says that there is now a lot of algae floating in the Sargasso Sea, which were seen by Columbus’s satellites.
Research by Dr. G. Ritter of the Oceanographic Institution at Woods Hole found in Sargassum algae "all signs of growth, reproduction and independent life." Ritter shares the opinion of those experts who believe that the distant ancestors of algae led an attached lifestyle, but modern algae - natives of the Sargasso Sea who have developed the ability to lead a floating lifestyle.
Candidate of Biological Sciences Alexander Sagaidachny, during the work of “Academician Kurchatov” in the summer of 1984 in the western part of the Sargasso Sea, studied the quantitative distribution of algae. He calculated that on every square kilometer of water there are on average about 6 thousand specimens of sargassum, which weigh approximately 40-60 kg. Note that in winter there is much more floating sargassum, which is explained by more frequent storms during this season.
The algae distribution map constructed by A. Sagaidachny shows that in places where the Gulf Stream flows, a kind of gully is formed in the algae field. The speed of the Gulf Stream is so great that algae caught in it are immediately carried away or “thrown out” into the slow-moving waters north and south of the rapid current.
But let's return to the problem of the origin of Sargassum algae. Where did these algae come from in the Sargasso Sea in ancient geological eras? Most likely, they were carried away from the coasts of Florida and the islands of the West Indies.
Off the islands of the West Indies and on the Florida shelf there are still thickets of the closest relatives of our sea wanderers.
Perhaps it would be appropriate to recall once again the version of the appearance of free-floating algae associated with Atlantis, which, we recall, was most often searched for in the North Atlantic, in particular in the Sargasso Sea region. Allegedly, after the sinking of Atlantis, algae remained on the surface of the ocean, which at one time inhabited the shelf of the legendary island.
So, we don’t know much about free-floating Sargassum algae. The main scientific mystery is the phase of transition from an attached to a floating lifestyle in the process of evolution.
Free-floating sargassum algae provide shelter for many inhabitants of the Sargasso Sea, which, in the process of evolution, have adapted to life on the sargassum “islands.” In 1492, Christopher Columbus personally removed a small yellow crab from a bunch of seaweed lifted aboard the Santa Maria, which he wrote down in his logbook. Now these crabs are called Sargassum crabs. Four centuries later, a Danish expedition aboard the ship Dana worked in the Sargasso Sea. The expedition discovered many living creatures living on the seaweed, including a seahorse, shrimp, and a crab, which was first reported by Columbus.
During the work of Soviet expeditions on the research vessel "Akademik Kurchatov" and other vessels, the study of flora and fauna in the Bermuda Triangle area continued. It turned out that sargassum fish gather near the floating algae. Often one could see triggerfish, the thinnest pipefish, funny motley clown fish, some kind of fry, and swimming crabs. Most of the listed organisms have a characteristic brown-yellow color, protective against the background of algae. By this feature, they are easily distinguished from other representatives of the epipelagic fauna, whose color is dominated by blue tones. And the small Sargassum fish is generally an example of protective coloring and protective shape. “Grapes” seem to be painted on its sides, and it is covered with a lace pattern, like real seaweed. The fauna of the floating sargassum “islands” also includes dolphins, which hide among the algae.
So, the Sargassum “islands” are a complex community of various animals, vertebrates and invertebrates, herbivores and ferocious predators.
Proponents of Atlantis used another argument in defense of their hypothesis - the presence of an insect adapted to a marine lifestyle. Water bugs scurry from one floating clump of algae to another. Indeed, their appearance in the open ocean seems unnatural, and you involuntarily catch yourself thinking: “Maybe the atlantologists are not so wrong?”
However, modern biological studies have shown that water bugs are purely marine insects belonging to the genus Halobates. Biologists now count more than forty species of this genus, living in tropical seas.
Perhaps we note that sargassum algae is also of economic interest as a source of potassium salts. The potassium content in various Sargassum algae species ranges from 370 to 2350 mg per 100 g of dry matter. It was interesting to observe them on board the ship. They took several branches of sargassum and placed them in tanks with sea water. While taking water samples, they began to monitor the potassium content in the water. It turns out that when the algae found themselves in a “stressful” situation, they quickly lost potassium. In the natural environment, that is, directly in the ocean, potassium is also lost by algae at night, and its content is restored during the day. Therefore, the collection of sargassum algae for household needs should be done during the daytime.
Apparently, sargassum algae also plays a very important role in the life cycle of sea turtles. A biological mystery is the mysterious disappearance of turtles that have just hatched from eggs. The first thing they do when they are born is begin to move towards the sea.
American scientist Archie Carr observed the behavior of recently born turtles in the round pool of the Lerner Laboratory on Bimini. The pool was not at all suitable for experiments on studying orientation - it was separated from the sea by a rather large space with houses and trees. In short, the turtles could not see the sea. However, they constantly crowded together on the "sea" side of the pool.
“Experiments have shown,” writes Carr, “that the innate ability to find the sea is not lost, even if you keep the turtle in captivity for a whole year. So, having left the nesting site, the turtles crawl into the sea and, having reached it... completely disappear” 2. A. Carr carefully examined nesting sites on the shores of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico and shallow waters, but did not find juvenile turtles anywhere. It cannot be assumed that every single turtle died, exterminated by predators. True, newborn turtles have more than enough enemies - fish and seabirds are not averse to feasting on the tender meat.
A. Carr suggested 3 that sargassum algae saves turtles. They apparently join the Sargassum fauna. The scientist says that when freshly caught sargassum islands were placed in floating cages in which turtles were observed, the turtles began to busily scurry among the stems and feed. In a word, we felt at home.

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The Sargasso Sea is unlike any other sea on our planet. The fact is that the remaining seas are limited by continents, while the Sargasso Sea is limited by strong Atlantic currents: in the north - the North Atlantic, in the south - the North Trade Wind, in the west - the Gulf Stream, in the east the Canary. For many years, the Sargasso Sea has been shrouded in many mysteries. They say that it has stagnant waters, and this entire motionless surface is completely covered with algae. In fact, the waters in the Sargasso Sea are in constant motion. They are pushed from different sides by different currents, so the Sargasso Sea rotates clockwise. And there is not such a large amount of algae in it.

The Sargasso Sea is considered one of the most interesting biological mysteries. It is located between the Leeward and Bermuda Islands. The area of ​​the sea is about 6–7 million km2, which depends on the position of the currents. The Sargasso Sea is also commonly called a biological desert, but this statement is incorrect. In addition to areas densely covered with seaweed, there are also many areas with clear water. The Sargasso Sea is inhabited by incredible creatures, as if straight from the pages of a science fiction novel. For example, this is the Sargassum clownfish, a fish from the clownfish family; it has fins that resemble hands, with which it sticks to algae.

Algae in the Sargasso Sea are kept afloat by gas-filled bubbles that resemble grapes. In Spanish, sargazo is a variety of small grapes, hence the name of the sea.

For many centuries now, the Sargasso Sea has caused terrible awe among sailors. There are many legends about how ships got entangled in its algae and died, and the whirlpool generated by the currents carried sailors to the bottom of the sea. Mysterious calms, mysterious fogs, thick algae haunt the human imagination. The earliest stories date back to the 5th century. BC e., therefore, already at that time sailors sailed in those parts of the Atlantic. Christopher Columbus also sailed past the Sargasso Sea and observed this natural phenomenon when, in 1942, the ships of his expedition made their way through a mass of algae.

The Sargasso Sea contains an advantage of one type of algae Sargassum natans. Their peculiarity is that they reproduce using fragmentation, that is, any piece can live independently, reproducing itself again and again. The main food for organisms in the Sargasso Sea is precisely these algae; due to the fact that the water temperature here is very high, plankton cannot live in it.

The algae stems have cracks in which smaller algae form, resembling hanging corals, as well as tubes. In some places, the stems of algae are covered with spots; these are bryozoans, living organisms like moss, found from the tropics to the poles. In other places in the ocean, bryozoans emerge from fertilized eggs, but in the Sargasso Sea they separate from the parent organism already formed. They have special cilia, with the help of which they capture microorganisms and feed on them. However, if bryozoans swallow a lot of food that is heavier than their weight, they drown and die in the icy water. Miniature shrimp and crabs also live in the Sargasso Sea. If the algae to which they are attached sinks to the bottom, they move to another algae.

Many living organisms in the Sargasso Sea survive only due to their camouflage. Thus, sea needles look like algae shoots; shrimp have white spots on their shells that resemble bryozoans. The sea clown has a color similar to algae, so it is almost invisible among them. With a height of 18 cm, it can attack an organism with a height of 20 cm. In case of danger, it scares away the enemy by swallowing water and taking the form of a ball.

During Columbus's first expedition, the Sargasso Sea was discovered.

Ask the question: Which sea has no shores? — Sargasso Sea!

On his first expedition in 1492, Columbus equipped three ships; the flotilla crew included 90 people. During the expedition, America, the Sargasso Sea, the island of San Salvador (Savior), the Caribbean islands - Guanahani (Bahamas), Hispaniola (Haiti), Juana (Cuba), and the island of Tortuga - were discovered. With this journey, Columbus began the Spanish conquest of the American continent.

Christopher Columbus was the first explorer to pass through the Sargasso Sea and cross the area of ​​the Atlantic that we now call the Bermuda Triangle. Thanks to Columbus, this area became shrouded in an atmosphere of mystery that became more and more intriguing over the years.

Columbus's ship's journal contains a description of the sea, completely filled with algae, a story about the unusual behavior of the compass needle, about the sudden appearance of a huge tongue of flame, about the strange glow of the sea. Every incomprehensible phenomenon plunged the sailors into horror. Rumors of incredible events quickly spread among sailors, and soon this area of ​​the Atlantic acquired a reputation for mystery and enigma that continues to this day.

The Sargasso Sea is located in the central North Atlantic. There are fewer clouds, less wind, and less precipitation than over other ocean areas. The Sargasso Sea is almost the size of the United States of America.

The Sargasso Sea is surrounded on all sides by powerful Atlantic currents, which cause its waters to slowly rotate clockwise. The name of the sea comes from the Portuguese word “sagaco”, “seaweed”. Sailors crossing the Sargasso Sea were afraid of running aground. Large clumps of algae usually mean proximity to land. The ocean in this area is several miles deep. Columbus very accurately described the algae of the sea. The Sargasso Sea is home to many unusual creatures. And the so-called “horse latitudes,” that is, a strip of frequent and long calms, when the lack of wind forced ships to stand still for a long time, significantly enhances the unusualness of this area.

The name “horse latitudes” arose back in the days when ships with horses on board stood here for a long time, caught in the wind. Days passed, but there was no rain or wind. Drinking water supplies were dwindling. Maddened with thirst, the horses broke free from their leashes and threw themselves into the water. Sometimes people threw weakened horses overboard to keep the remaining water stronger and more resilient. Superstitious sailors claimed that ghosts of horses often appeared here at night.

The air here can be so still that sailing ships could not move for a long time. In those days, sailors did not like to go too far from the shore; they became uneasy if land did not appear for too long. They were horrified by the sight of a continuous mess of yellow, brown and green algae with bizarre creatures swarming on them.

The more ships stood motionless, with drooping sails along the “horse latitudes,” the more terrible the stories about the Sargasso Sea became. According to them, it was no longer the lack of wind that delayed the ships there, but something else, incomprehensible.

Anchor chains, ropes, and sides gradually became overgrown and entangled in a strong web of algae. She tenaciously held the ship in this trap under the hot tropical sun until its crew died of hunger and thirst. All that was left of the ship was a rotten skeleton littered with skeletons, which did not sink to the bottom because “tentacles” of algae wrapped around it. The carpenter worm, which thrives in tropical waters, turned the sides of ships into solid dust.

When objects fall into the relatively calm waters of the central Sargasso Sea, they begin to move in a giant circle, like a person caught in a whirlpool, and eventually drown. And many plants brought here by currents continue to grow. It is believed that most of the algae entered the Sargasso Sea from the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea using the Gulf Stream. From Central America and the West Indies, tree trunks float here - victims of hurricanes. All the rubbish and garbage that ends up in the rivers of these areas may sooner or later end up in the Sargasso Sea.

Many abandoned ships have been found in the Sargasso Sea, and because of this it enjoys the sad reputation of a ship graveyard. The Sargasso Sea is indeed a very strange place.

Here Columbus noticed that the compass needle did not point to the North Star, but had shifted to the northwest. This was the first time the declination of the magnetic compass was noted. Columbus came to the conclusion that the compass needle does not point to the North Star, as his contemporaries believed, but to some other point in space. In reality, the compass needle points not to the North Pole or the North Star, but to the North Magnetic Pole. There are very few places on the globe where the compass needle points to the geographic North Pole. This feature of the magnetic needle is well known to pilots, sailors and travel lovers. They know how to adjust the compass readings to determine the direction to the geographic pole.