The Sargasso Sea

“So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world…” [Revelation 12:7]

One of the most interesting places in the world is actually out in the middle of the ocean. The Sargasso Sea does not even have a coastline but is a separate sea located in the middle of the North Atlantic, between the West Indies and the Azores. The warm waters of the Sargasso Sea cover some 2 million square miles and are encircled by the Gulf Stream, causing the oval-shaped sea to move in a slow, clockwise drift. This makes the 3-mile-deep waters exceptionally clear and blue, with a higher than normal salt content.

The Sargasso Sea is filled with seaweed. Early Portuguese navigators named the sea “sargaco,” the word for grape, after the bulbous little floats on the Sargassum seaweed. Although one-third of the Atlantic’s plankton is produced there, the Sargasso Sea is known as “the floating desert” because the Sargassum seaweed lacks the nutrients to attract commercially valuable fish. But many small marine animals, including tiny crabs, shrimp, and octopuses, live on and among the seaweed.

One of the most amazing facts about the Sargasso Sea is that it serves as the international meeting place for eels. Drawn by unknown forces, each fall millions of these snakelike fish migrate from Europe, the Mediterranean, and the United States to mate, spawn, and die. Some eels have even left their freshwater homes and crossed miles of land, breathing through their skin, to reach the ocean that they might swim to the Sargasso Sea and breed. Once the eggs hatch, their inch-long, transparent larvae, known as “glass eels,” make the long journey back to continental streams and rivers.

For hundreds of years naturalists wondered where eels came from. When it was discovered that virtually all the eels in the Western Hemisphere migrated to the Sargasso Sea, it was an amazing revelation. In the same way, many have wondered where sin and evil spawned. The Bible tells us about one of the highest angels in heaven, named Lucifer, who turned from God and was eventually cast out.

“How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God… I will be like the Most High’” (Isaiah 14:12-14). It is no secret where sin came from.