800 Tons of Sargasso Seaweed Sweep Cancun Beaches – Cleanup Crews Brace for More!

Strong southerly winds have resulted in a significant increase in the volume of sargasso seaweed washing up on Cancun's Coral Beach, with 300 cubic meters collected in just three days. In total, more than 800 tons of sargasso were removed from the beaches of Benito Juárez due to these persistent winds.

The clean-up team is bracing for an even busier weekend, as forecasts predict an increase in the arrival of the macroalgae. This first major sargasso stranding of the year on the shores of Quintana Roo was driven by a southeasterly wind event. These intense, dry winds are characteristic of the Gulf of Mexico and the Yucatán Peninsula.

Sargasso and Sand Swept onto Mexican Caribbean Beaches by Southerly Winds

Twenty employees from the Federal Maritime Terrestrial Zone (Zofemat) and Municipal Public Services have been working tirelessly on the beaches. The volume of seaweed has been so significant that working hours have had to be doubled. "We're removing the last of it today (Wednesday), but we've been warned to expect another large amount of sargasso this weekend," said Juan Carlos, one of the workers.

Dolphin Beach was also affected, albeit to a lesser extent, with 16 tons of seaweed being removed according to the Municipal Public Services department.

Forecasts for the coming days suggest that a change to northerly winds, generating gusts of up to 70 kilometers per hour, could lead to an even greater volume of sargasso washing up on the northern beaches of the state, including Las Perlas, Lobster, and Caracol.

Esteban Amaro, president of the Sargasso Monitoring Network, predicts that this season could see between 50,000 to 55,000 tons of the seaweed strand on the shores, an increase of 30 percent compared to the previous season.

Concerns Raised

Amaro noted that the first major stranding of the marine vegetation occurred last weekend along some 450 kilometers of the Quintana Roo coast, from Punta Nizuc in Cancun to Xcalak in the southern part of the state, as well as Cozumel. This was due to the accumulation of pelagic sargasso biomass near the shore and southeastern winds of up to 70 kilometers per hour.

The areas most affected in the state of Quintana Roo were Mahahual and Xcalak in the Othón P. Blanco municipality, as well as parts of the Tulum National Park, the south of Playa del Carmen, Puerto Morelos, Bahia Petempich, and Punta Nizuc. However, the stranding in Cancun was of low to moderate intensity.