After a three-year hiatus, the scourge of sargassum has returned to Quintana Roo’s tourist hotspots, leaving a trail of destruction and disappointment in its wake. The macroalgae has descended upon Playa del Carmen, Tulum, and Puerto Morelos, burying beaches under its thick blanket of vegetation.
While Cancún, located further north, has thus far been spared the worst of it, the situation is dire for the other three towns. Beach cleanup efforts are underway, but they seem to be having little impact as the sargassum continues to arrive with ocean currents from the eastern Caribbean Sea.
The timing couldn’t be worse, as hotel occupancy rates in the Riviera Maya have been lower than expected this month, with many rooms vacant due to the unappealing conditions on the beaches. According to reports, less than 61% of available rooms are occupied, a stark contrast to previous years.
In Playa del Carmen, the city center’s coastal stretch is particularly affected, with efforts to contain the sargassum proving futile. Despite the Navy’s placement of a polymer barrier in the sea, the algae continue to breach it and reach the shoreline. Municipal crews have been deployed to clear the coastal dunes of the algae, but their work has been hampered by the sheer volume of sargassum.
The situation is so dire that tourists are choosing to leave the area due to the strong odor emanating from the decomposing sargassum. Beach clubs, hotels, and restaurants are suffering significant economic losses because of the closure of their beaches.
According to Esteban Amaro Mauricio, a hydrobiologist and founder of the Quintana Roo Sargassum Monitoring Network, the resurgence of the macroalgae is due to a two-degree increase in sea temperature. This thermal anomaly has made the Caribbean region particularly susceptible to sargassum blooms.
“The Caribbean is one of the areas most sensitive to climate change,” Amaro noted. “This influx of sargassum is reminiscent of the 2018 ecological disaster, when efforts were made to declare this phenomenon an ecological disaster.”
In previous years, civil society came together to organize massive cleanups, but interest in these events has waned due to the perceived self-interest of large hotels and their managers, who have been accused of chasing local beachgoers away from concessioned areas.
Source: Proceso
