Can anyone identify this plant? There was tons of it at the beach

[raccoon]

last month, in the water too of course.

[JCMach1]

1. Sargassum I think

[El Fuego]

2. Sargassum from the Sargasso Sea

The Sargasso Sea is a big dead super salty practicaly lifeless area in the middle of the Atlantic. It's covered with the sargassum weeds which float on the surface like islands.

The sargassum is really interesting stuff. If you lift a hunk of it out of the water and shake it into a container, lots of little shrimpy type things fall out. The most fascinating thing of all is the sargasso fish, which lives in the sargassum and has evolved to look exactly like it: