Surface Eddies and Suspended Matter Near The Bahamas

Although the waters around The Bahamas are oligotrophic, elevated chlorophyll concentrations are occasionally observed in the north of the archipelago, and are explained by mesoscale variability and sea level anomalies. An estimate shows that eddies approach The Bahamas region from the Sargasso Sea at a velocity of about 0.04 m to 0.07 m s-1. In the nearshore region, about 85% of anticyclonic eddies carry higher suspended load in their outer periphery, and 69% of cyclonic eddies carry elevated concentrations outside. Cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies propagate regularly to the region east of The Bahamas, where they interact with the bathymetry of the continental shelf and disintegrate, but they are the cause for a complicated distribution patterns of chlorophyll and suspended matter. Cyclonic eddies seem more numerous, but anticyclonic eddies also seem to appear more frequently near the Little Bahama Bank. Temperature measurements close to the Little Bahama Bank show that about every 40 days eddies drift through the region close to The Bahamas.