Smothered by Sargassum

In the late summer, at the end of "sargassum season" where the winds and currents blow a brown algae called sargassum seaweed into the Caribbean. As the season and the winds change it all starts to build into giant flotillas and get pushed ashore. Once beached, it's a notorious nuisance as it rots in the sun and releases gasses and foul odors. However when the shoreline is steep, like coral "iron shore" cliffs the seaweed can build and pack forming what seems like a cave. On Christopher Columbus' first voyages it was reported that the sargassum was so thick in the Sargasso Sea (north east of the Caribbean Sea) he was worried his ships may become stuck. However it's very buoyant and in the right conditions, when masses of patches combine you can get what could be described as a disappearing cave. The sargassum forms a ceiling so thick in spots you can barely push through it, blocking out the light and access to the surface. Within a couple months at most this ''cave' will be gone and never return in its exact same form. We took our opportunity to dive a dive that will never be able to be repeated again and got the footage to prove it.