Samples of the abundant seaweed from the Sargasso Sea that has washed up on Bermuda’s shores in recent weeks is to be analysed by US-based seaweed expert Dr. Craig Schneider of Trinity College in Connecticut.

As reported in yesterday’s Royal Gazette <$>Dr. Martin Thomas, who works closely with the Aquarium is also looking at the various examples of the seaweed that has broken off from the Gulf Stream and drifted into the Island’s coastal waters.

But it is Dr. Schneider who is the lead expert in the field. Commonly referred to simply as Sargasso seaweed, the Aquarium’s collector of species Chris Flook points out the official name of the species is Sargussum seaweed. An unusual type of the seaweed, thought to be an as yet undocumented “flowering” phase of the seaweed, has been discovered during research of the seaweed that has reached Bermuda this year and examples of this are being sent to Dr. Schneider in the US to exam.