The westward-flowing Caribbean Current (Wust, 1964; Morrison & Nowlin, 1982), with its characteristically intense transit of mesoscale eddies, is the major oceanographic process in the Caribbean (Jouanno, Sheinbaum, Barnier, Molines, & Candela, 2012).
In the Northeast zone, eddies are formed and transported in both seasons in the Caribbean current that enters the Colombia basin from Brazil.
"These reports indicate that the large amount of sargassum-and presumably the dolphin associating with it--in the Caribbean is being pushed to the west where the
Caribbean current should carry it northward ultimately through the Yucatan Straits into the Gulf of Mexico," he said.
In fact, the
Caribbean Current meanders around these eddies on its journey to the Gulf of Mexico, its water having originated in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean and travelled via the North Equatorial, North Brazil, and Guiana currents.
Cherubin LM, Richardson PL (2007)
Caribbean current variability and the influence of the Amazon and Orinoco freshwater plumes.
Two of these sites are within the "northern Caribbean current track": San Salvador (Bahamas) and St.
1), a larva traveling in the major Caribbean currents would be carried at least 360 km.
The water advected northward by the eddies probably then enters the
Caribbean Current.
They then ride the Antilles, Florida and
Caribbean currents and the Gulf Stream for about a year if they are American eels.
As stated in the preface by Peter Manuel, Caribbean Currents is intended as an introductory text, primarily for undergraduate college students.
Caribbean Currents is organized into ten chapters, each of which constitutes a separate study that may be read independency of other sections.