# Brown splotches in the ocean **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 1, 2006, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brown-splotches-in-the-ocean/374893 "2006-10-01T22:45:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Neptunian\_Slug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce7236/32.png) [@Neptunian\_Slug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neptunian_Slug)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2006, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brown-splotches-in-the-ocean/374893/1 "2006-10-01T22:45:24Z")
Just got back from a cruise to Bermuda. On the way back, Mrs. Slug and I noticed something small and brown floating in the ocean. At first, we thought it was a clump of leaves. We weren’t too far off the coast of BDA and figured that it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that some leaves floated into the ocean and survived. However, later in the cruise, we saw even larger splotches, probably about 10-20 feet in diameter, floating by. And lots of them. So the leaf theory got tossed out the window. We just cannot imagine what this was. Some sort of pollution? Turds from a blue whale? Any mariners out there have any idea? ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2006, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brown-splotches-in-the-ocean/374893/2 "2006-10-01T22:53:36Z")
[QUOTE=Neptunian Slug] Just got back from a cruise to Bermuda. On the way back, Mrs. Slug and I noticed something small and brown floating in the ocean. At first, we thought it was a clump of leaves. We weren’t too far off the coast of BDA and figured that it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that some leaves floated into the ocean and survived. However, later in the cruise, we saw even larger splotches, probably about 10-20 feet in diameter, floating by. And lots of them. So the leaf theory got tossed out the window. We just cannot imagine what this was. Some sort of pollution? Turds from a blue whale? Any mariners out there have any idea? [/QUOTE] Possibly kelp paddies. Patches of floating kelp dislodged from kelp forests. ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2006, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brown-splotches-in-the-ocean/374893/3 "2006-10-02T11:21:32Z")
[QUOTE=Neptunian Slug] We weren’t too far off the coast of BDA and figured that it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that some leaves floated into the ocean and survived. [/QUOTE] Bermuda, eh? That would put you in the western fringes of the [Sargasso Sea](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sargasso_Sea) and most likely you saw clumps of the famus Sargassum weed. [MEBuckner’s mailbag article](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/msargasso.html) on the location… ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2006, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brown-splotches-in-the-ocean/374893/4 "2006-10-02T15:59:28Z")
Probably _Sargassum_ as **slaphead** says, but colored spots in the ocean can also be caused by aggregations of animals or plankton (we tend to get orange and pink spots out here on the California coast), scat from whales (you’d very likely see the whale, though.) I assume that since you thought it was leaves you saw leaf-like structures?