A nightmare called sargassum

When the crystal clear waters of the Caribbean Sea turn a reddish hue, bathers run out and move their towels and umbrellas to another place on the beach. This happens every time the sargassum arrives in San Andrés, because every setback is an obstacle to tourism. For the daring bather, in the end the experience is not the most pleasant. Swimming among these algae and then pretending to surface is like pulling a spoon out of a very thick soup. Sargassum is plant material, it gets tangled in the hair and traps between its nets. But what used to be an experience that took place at certain times of the year is becoming more and more frequent, not only on the island of San Andrés, but other paradisiacal destinations such as Cancun, Jamaica and the West Indies. The reason that worries many are its effects on people's lives and on the environment.

Sargassum is a type of algae that can be several meters long and although it has always existed and also plays important functions in ecosystems, in abundance, it can only create the opposite effect. Thus, although some scientists have pointed out that it acts as a nursery for invertebrate animals and fish, its presence has once again been a cause for concern. For some environmental authorities, sargassum is a real problem because it arrives in increasing numbers and at least in Quintana Roo (Mexico) its arrival is so unfortunate that there is the Sargassum Monitoring Network, which has already announced that given the call that has been presented in Honduras and the spring season that raises the temperature from the sea and accelerates its reproduction, next week the sargassum will be on the Mexican beaches.

This proliferation, in the words of Jorge Sánchez, founding partner of Help 2 Oceans Foundation, is not only alarming because of the amount of space these algae occupy on the beach, but because their presence in the water “consumes high volumes of oxygen and affects marine life”. But the cause has a reason to be. Sanchez, in dialogue with Infobae, also pointed out that this is due to the high volumes of “polluting substances that flow into the sea as a result of mass agriculture near the east coast of the United States.”

The situation is so alarming that a study carried out by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), published in the framework of the XXV United Nations Conference on Climate Change, went on to announce that oxygen had fallen 2% between 1960 and 2010. This implies that, when floating in turquoise waters where seagrass and coral reefs are found, sunlight stops entering, preventing the photosynthesis and life of other species that also need oxygen.

One of the most critical moments that the tourism sector has experienced in Quintana Roo (Mexico), was the arrival of sargassum in 2018. According to The New York Times in Spanish, during the first half of this year, Cancun airport registered a drop in passenger flow growth and only on beach cleaning, the Mexican government spent 312 million pesos. Of the 4.6 million tons that reached the beach in the Caribbean region and the Gulf of Mexico, more than 10 million tons have begun to arrive, according to data from the University of South Florida and NASA, which not only affects the environment but also the aesthetics of the beaches and the comfort of those who live nearby.

This partly has to do with the smells and decomposition of sargassum on the beach, because when these algae decompose they release gases such as sulfuric acid or heavy metals, which can affect people who are there. In this regard, experts such as Sánchez, call on the environmental authorities to leave the “warmth” in these matters and begin to present sustainable solutions where algae can become raw materials for commercial activities.

However, many experts agree that while local implementations aimed at making use of these algae should be considered, as is done for example in Jamaica where they use sargassum as goat feed, the truth is that solutions to a problem that is not minor and that reaches the beaches with tides of the Caribbean without distinguishing borders, should be seen as what they really are: an entirely global problem.

KEEP READING: