Mexican Navy Collects 1.5 Tons of Sargassum Along The Caribbean Beaches
2 min readThe Mexican Navy recently announced that it collected 1.5 tons of pesky sargassum seaweed off the Mexican Caribbean coast. This makes beach access and swimming in the warm, blue sea along Mexico’s Riviera Maya much more pleasant. The project began in the Mahahual region, and it will extend to all the beaches in the state of Quintan Roo. This includes Cancun, the island of Cozumel, Playa del Carmen, Tulum, Puerto Morelos, and other coastal areas. Although it provides habitat for […]
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The Mexican Navy recently announced that it collected 1.5 tons of pesky sargassum seaweed off the Mexican Caribbean coast. This makes beach access and swimming in the warm, blue sea along Mexico’s Riviera Maya much more pleasant.
The project began in the Mahahual region, and it will extend to all the beaches in the state of Quintan Roo. This includes Cancun, the island of Cozumel, Playa del Carmen, Tulum, Puerto Morelos, and other coastal areas. Although it provides habitat for many marine organisms, sargassum attracts flies, mosquitos, and other insects. It also has a very unpleasant odor when the seaweed releases toxic gasses as it decomposes!
The brown seaweed is carried by the Caribbean currents and wind to the various beaches. According to health officials at DA N, (Diver’s Alert Network) the massive piles of seaweed washing up on the Florida Atlantic and eastern Caribbean shores are part of the north equatorial recirculation region (NERR). Fresh water from this region, that includes Brazil’s Amazon River delta and Africa’s Congo River, carries chemicals from fertilizers. The chemicals mix within the tropical sea waters of the Atlantic to feed a thick mass of seaweed in an area known as the Sargasso Sea. This is also part of a region known unofficially as the Bermuda Triangle!
Cleaning the Beaches
Hotels and resorts along the Caribbean coasts of Mexico and Belize rake the beaches each day to eliminate the seaweed. No one can predict when and exactly where the currents will wash up the sargasso. As a result, the resorts and local parks must patrol the beaches daily. Although January through April are the major months for sargasso to wash up on the beaches, the seaweed is prevalent all year.
Keeping coastal water clear from the seaweed mass improves sea life, important for fishing. Large floating beds of sargassum can smother fish and injure both outboard and inboard boat motors. Charter boats for big game fishing, diving, snorkeling, and other water sports need clear waters to operate effectively.
The Mexican Navy continues to work within the Eleventh Naval Zone to keep the Mexican Caribbean Coast beaches and coastal waters clean for everyone to enjoy.
