Seaweed is mucking up beaches. This robot could stop it — and fight climate change – NPR

Sargassum sacs (by John Turnbull CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED via Flickr).

In shallow waters, sargassum can smother coral reefs and alter the water’s pH balance, killing off local seagrasses and mangroves. It can choke boat motors, constricting local fishing yields if not cutting off whole marinas. Sargassum once clogged a desalination plant so badly that residents of the U.S. Virgin Islands were told the drinking water may not be safe…