Adding weeds to landscaping or vegetable plots might sound crazy to gardeners, but it just might be a cost-effective solution to ridding clogged shorelines of sargassum weed. Scientists are evaluating the viability of using sargassum weed, actually a brown macro algae that washes up seasonally, as compost for gardens. Florida Sea Grant and the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences are looking for a green solution to removing sargassum, which could also reduce costs for coastal counties and municipalities that have to haul away the stinky seaweed. In normal quantities, sargassum seaweed provides essential protection for oceanic creatures, but since 2011, the volume of the macro algae has exploded. In 2019, the sargassum blanketed the Keysâ coastline and sat dormant in canals.