Donate Take Action

Join us


Marine Places

The Sargasso Sea

The Sargasso Sea is a large area of the north Atlantic southeast of Bermuda. It is bounded by ocean currents: the Gulf Stream to its west and north, the Canary Current far to the east, and the North Equatorial Current to its south. The area between these currents rotates slowly in a clockwise direction and is often quite calm.

Large mats of yellow-brown sargassum seaweed float on its surface, providing shelter and food for communities of small crustaceans and fish, including freshwater eels. Adult eels migrate to the Sargasso every year to mate and spawn, and their young are carried back to the rivers of North America and Europe by the Gulf Stream. Deep water in this part of the Atlantic flows from north to south.

  • Area 2 million square miles (5.2 million square km)
  • Maximum Depth 23,000 ft (7,000 m)
  • Inflows None