Seaweed

This is Elise. We drove down to the X town( I call it that because I can't pronounce the name) because it is known to have beautiful pristine water for snorkeling.  It took us 2 hours to get there and 40 minutes back on the fast road.  We get there and the water  is brown, murky and choked with seaweed. The Canadian guy we talked to has been spending every winter there for 13 years and has never seen anything like this seaweed before. It' s been blown down from Florida and is making some the beaches here a smelly brown mess. Lucky us. I wonder how long it takes for seaweed to degrade?