Pelagic Sargassum Species and the Sargassum Nudibranch Scyllaea pelagica Linné, 1758 Recorded from the Coastal Bays of Virginia

J. Meadow Noonan¹, P.G. Ross¹, Sean M. Fate², Edward G. Smith¹, and Stacy A. Krueger-Hadfield^1,*

¹Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Eastern Shore Lab, 40 Atlantic Avenue, Wachapreague, VA 23480. *Corresponding authors.

Northeastern Naturalist, Volume 32, Issue 3 (2025): N63–N69

First published early online: 28 September 2025

Abstract
In October 2024, we found pelagic Sargassum fluitans var. fluitans, Sargassum natans var. natans, and Sargassum natans var. wingei as drift on a barrier island off the coast of Wachapreague, VA. Mixed in with the pelagic sargassum, we observed the sargassum nudibranch Scyllaea pelagica. While pelagic sargassum have been noted as drift along the Eastern Shore of Virginia, previous work did not distinguish among pelagic sargassum species (or morphotypes). We suspect the pelagic sargassum species and Scyllaea pelagica individuals were driven northward by 2 large hurricanes in the weeks preceding our collections, possibly further facilitated by greater accumulations of pelagic sargassum in the Atlantic in recent decades. Observations like these add to our understanding of the biology and ecology of free-living macroalgae.

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