GALVESTON, Texas – After a couple years of an extreme amount of seaweed along Galveston beaches, things could be changing this summer for the better.
Most who were on Galveston Island last year at this time saw mounds of seaweed everywhere. This year, it's not as bad.
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"We've been here in the past and it's been really bad and hard to walk through, but this year it's not bad at all," said one woman.
"It can be smelly. Today, it's not too bad, but if it's really hot, it can be smelly," Tim Scarborough said.
Last year and the year before, seaweed nearly took over our beaches. This year, it's a different story.
The seaweed comes from the Sargasso Sea, follows the Gulf Stream into the Gulf of Mexico, where strong southerly winds pick it up and drop it onto the beach, but when that onshore flow is not as strong, beachgoers don't see as much seaweed.
"Mother Nature is hard to predict. The satellite photography that's showing right now is just real light pockets of it," said Lt. Mike Reardon with the Galveston Island Beach Patrol.