Sargasso on the beach

I was drinking coffee on the porch and saw 9 Mexican ladies walking along the beach collecting some seaweed and putting it in large burlap bags. They were being picky about which seaweed they picked, which made me very curious. I went down on the beach to ask them and find out.

First, I guess they were surprised that a gringa spoke Spanish, so after their initial shock, they answered my questions.  :)  They were only collecting the sargasso seaweed that washed up last night. The sargasso is a special seaweed that has small round seed looking pieces that act like bladders to keep the seaweed afloat. I had heard of the Sargasso Sea, in the Bermuda Triange, but had not really seen any.
The biggest answer I got to why they were picking it up was that several were going to eat it, like a salad, some were going to cook it, like a soup, and some were going to give to their fishermen husbands to put in the packing with the octopus they are catching to send to Japan. Sargasso is a delicacy in Japan, along with the octopus. I read that Mexico is supplying all the octopus for Japan now because the fishing in Africa was off. There are record prices for a kilo of Octopus now- $108 pesos a kilo. (around $10 a kilo US)
I guess there will be happy people in Mexico, AND Japan now. Bon Appetit Japan!