A record amount of seaweed has been washing up on beaches across southern Florida this summer.

Almost 25,000 tons of the sargassum seaweed have been collected so far, surpassing 2021's total of 21,000 tons.

Footage from Delray Beach shows the beachfront lined with several rows of the sargassum that emits a smelly stench.

After nearly an entire summer with its beaches coated in record amounts of stinky, scratchy sargassum seaweed, South Floridians are wondering if this is the new normal. Scientists say the pure tonnage of sargassum seaweed that washed up on beaches from Miami on northward into Broward and Palm Beach Counties was the most the region has ever seen. Beaches in the Caribbean and Mexico have been covered in seaweed for over a decade during the summer months at the level South Florida saw this year. In some areas, such as the Yucatan Peninsula, officials fear that it's hurting the resort economy. Some experts believe with nothing to diminish the bloom of seaweed -- which may be due to a warming ocean and too much nutrient-rich run-off from human activities on land -- sargassum seaweed will continue to be a regular, if unwelcome, summer feature.