Six Caribbean destinations face biggest sargassum invasion in years

18-05-24

Sargassum is a big problem for many travellers during the summer months. It ruins white sandy beaches, smells terrible and can even prevent swimming in the ocean.  

A press release from the Quintana Roo Sargasso Monitoring Network has revealed that an incredible and overwhelming mass of sargassum is currently floating in the Honduran Caribbean.  

This mass is currently a whopping 5,000 square kilometres. That's about 10 times the length of the island of Cozumel.  

And the bad news is that prevailing winds from east to west mean that this mass will reach the waters of the Mexican Caribbean in the coming weeks.

It is one of the largest masses of sargassum the region has experienced in years.  

The Director of the Sargasso Monitoring Network reported that between 200 and 300,000 tonnes of sargassum are expected to reach the Mexican Caribbean coast this summer.

That is a considerable amount more than the same coastline has experienced in the last two years.  

The 6 regions that will be impacted by this incredible invasion of sargassum are:  

• Mexican Caribbean coast

• Dominican Republic

• Jamaica

• The Lesser Antilles Archipelago Islands

• Turks and Caicos Islands

• The Miami area on the Florida peninsula, USA. 

June, July and August are expected to be the months when most sargassum will wash ashore, resulting in devastated beaches everywhere.  

Many Mexican Caribbean destinations, such as Cancun and Tulum, have installed sargassum barriers to prevent the algae from washing ashore. These barriers do not completely eliminate the problem and sargassum will continue to wash ashore, but they help to reduce the amount.  

Apart from these barriers, the most common way that destinations such as Mexico, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic deal with sargassum is simply to remove it.  

Dredge pumps, tractors and the manual labour of specialised teams that lift the sargassum by hand with rakes and wheelbarrows help to remove as much sargassum as possible.