Beautiful turquoise waters of the Mexican Caribbean turned brown in recent days due to the mass arrival of seaweed.
The seaweed situation in the Mexican Caribbean was very positive in the first 3 months of 2024. Several reports showed noticeably less sargassum than in previous seaweed seasons, but that changed on April 6. Travelers in the Mexican Caribbean and our journalists in the area began uploading photos to our Facebook seaweed reporting group from what appears to be a large increase in sargassum arrivals at popular beaches such as Playa del Carmen, Playacar, Tulum, etc.
Video recorded by our journalist on April 6 shows the first arrival at Coco Beach in Playa del Carmen, which was absolutely clean the day before.
Source: Traveling Lifestyle
On April 8, seasoned traveler Brendan H. lamented how much beaches in Mexico have changed in the past twenty years: “My wife and I have been vacationing in Playa for over 20 years. Sargassum ruined it. Such a pity!”
“The last time I was there [Playacar]the beach was full of them [sargassum], the hotel had a tractor to empty it, driving back and forth all day, it didn’t help much. Climate change in action,said a beachgoer named Simon R. on April 9.
Other beaches such as Isla Mujeres, historically protected from sargassum due to its privileged geographical location, are also starting to receive some amounts of the foul-smelling seaweed: “Actually. [I] was there today on the south side. Was not right. Cloudy, seaweed and ugly,” said Patty Drinkwater on April 8.
Other tourists have caught cleaning crews on camera operating heavy machinery to remove the algae invading some Playa del Carmen beaches, but it just seems impossible to get it all out of the water.
Video recorded by our journalist on April 9:
Why is the seaweed season only starting now?
Authorities, beachgoers and local vendors have been report a significant reduction in sargassum arrivals during the initial year.
According to Bartolo Canché, a water tour vendor, Tulum was covered in sargasum in late January 2023. This year, the first blobs of sargassum started arriving in late March.
Sargassum collected on the beaches of Tulum, Cobá, Playa del Carmen, Tancah and Pole between January and February 2024, was 800 notes less than the same time frame in 2023.
So far, mild temperatures in the ocean have kept sargassum at bay. But summer is just around the corner and the inevitable will happen: the Mexican Caribbean will start seeing more sargassum in weeks and months.
What causes sargassum seaweed?
Source: Traveling Lifestyle
Martín Meléndez, professor at the Technological Institute of Santo Domingo (INTEC), explains that rising water temperatures, global warming and excess nutrients dumped into the oceans by the agricultural industry are causing sargassum to grow unchecked and onto Caribbean beaches “without the help of cyclones.”
That’s why, he says, we see sargassum all year round and not just in summer, when high temperatures favor its reproduction.
Sargassum originates at the northern end of the Amazon and the coasts of West Africa, from Sierra Leone to Ghana. Then thermohaline currents (caused by temperature and salt) bring it to the Caribbean.
Anyway, this time the predictions are not as unclear as in previous years.
Diego Reina Anduze, director of “The 7 Natural Wonders of America”, stated that the fight against sargassum requires synergy between governments, scientists, local communities and the private tourism industry.
