Giant Sargassum Raft En Route to Mexican Caribbean!

A colossal sargassum raft, approximately 5,000 km² in size (around ten times larger than Cozumel Island), has been detected in the waters of the Mexican Caribbean. The Sargassum Monitoring Network in Quintana Roo reports that this raft of macroalgae weighs nearly half a million tons. The raft was observed floating about 100 km east of the Guanaja and Roatán Islands in the Honduran Caribbean. Current forecasts suggest that prevailing sea currents and winds will carry it towards the Mexican Caribbean in the coming weeks.

According to the network, this massive raft is so large it can be seen from space using infrared remote sensing satellites. The network predicts that this huge mass of brown macroalgae will arrive in waves, with high-intensity influxes expected. It's likely to cause a significant increase in sargassum on local beaches, particularly in the southern part of the state, within about two weeks. These predictions are based on trajectories and speed vectors calculated by the RDMS's coastal arrival simulation models.

The Director of the Sargassum Monitoring Network, Hydrobiologist Esteban Jesus Amaro Mauricio, stated on May 10th that this year could see between 200 and 300 thousand tons of sargassum arriving on the coasts of the Mexican Caribbean. This amount far surpasses what has washed up on the shores in the past two years.

The sargassum bed is also expected to significantly impact other tourist destinations in the Caribbean region. These include the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, the Lesser Antilles archipelago, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. Even Miami, on the Florida Peninsula in the USA, is expected to be affected, particularly during the summer months of June, July, and August.