Sagassum is seaweed or Bladderwack. Smelly, tough to swim through and expensive to get rid of. Nature.
Sargassum Likely To Return In 2019 - Impacts Tourism in Quintana Roo
January 15, 2019
An article in the online news paper Mexico News Today discusses the possible return of Sargassum to the Quintana Roo and other beaches in the area in higher quantities than in 2018. This could mean another smelly year at the Grand Luxxe Residence Club in Riviera Maya. Read BWB's Riviera Maya Update - October 15, 2018 here.What is Sargassum? Seaweed. It comes from a large plume in the middle of the Atlantic. It is the only sea that does not have contact with land.
Possibility very high that large masses of sargassum currently in the Atlantic will find their way to the state's beaches
Monday, January 14, 2019
47 SHARES
Large quantities of sargassum are again likely to wash up on the beaches of Mexico’s Caribbean coast in 2019, according to an ocean researcher from the National Autonomous University (UNAM).
Brigitta Ine van Tussenbroek, a scientist at the university’s Institute of Marine Sciences and Limnology, said that satellite images from the University of Florida show that there are currently large floating masses of the brown seaweed in the Atlantic Ocean between southern Africa and Brazil.
The coast of Quintana Roo at Chetumal, Tulum or Cancún could all be affected, van Tussenbroek said, although she explained that more detailed monitoring and modeling is needed to say with confidence which beaches would see large amounts of sargassum.
“If it’s in open ocean, the possibility of it arriving on the Mexican coast is very high although it depends on local atmospheric conditions, like trade winds, that carry sargassum to our beaches,” she said.
Van Tussenbroek warned that if the seaweed arrives in quantities similar to those seen last year, the impact on local ecosystems and tourism will be severe.
In 2018, tourism declined in some parts of coastal Quintana Roo due to the presence of unsightly and smelly sargassum on beaches that draw visitors because of their usually pristine white sand.
Van Tussenbroek said that authorities at all levels of government need to work together to establish efficient and environmentally-friendly methods with which to collect sargassum before it reaches the coastline.
“In Quintana Roo, the tourism sector is extremely worried and actively participates . . in the mitigation [of the problem] but [the response] should reach another level, go beyond local action,” she said.
The scientist added that her suggestion is to “establish a state or national coordinating body, [that is] specifically dedicated to effective [sargassum] mitigation.”
Floating sargassum barriers were installed off some sections of Quintana Roo’s coast last year to prevent the seaweed from arriving on shore but authorities and citizens were still required to dedicate thousands of hours to clean the state’s beaches.
Source: El Financiero (sp)
Sargassum is part of nature. Going to the beach to commune with nature has its upsides and downsides. Don't be discouraged by the downside of an invasion by Sargassum. Hard to do when you are on a beautiful vacation and want to enjoy the beach and ocean.