Playa del Carmen seaweed update: Sargassum, macroalgae that among May and September of past years has attacked the Caribbean beaches, is now on the beaches of Playa del Carmen, in “very low” to reasonable levels, including the ruins of Tulum and Xcacel-Xcacelito. Since 2011 its appearance increased and peaked in 2019 when a government plan was put in place to address the ecological situation.
The Cancun’s monitoring center, through social medial, shows every week a traffic light to determine this macroalga on the coast.
As of March 14, it was observed that 15 beaches had no sargassum, 33 had very low, and 27 in moderate levels. Only 5 of them were in an abundant situation of the algae.
In 2019 the government’s sargassum containment plan was installed, managed by the Ministry of the Navy; that year it received 78 thousand tons from the sea and beaches, while in 2020 it was 17 thousand.
“There is no sargassum at the moment, small places very far away. On March 12 and 14, we moved out tours of beaches that are clean, such as Puerto Morelos, walls have already been placed in Tulum and Playa del Carmen, and we are operating hand in hand with Semarnat and Tourism, to have a constant cleaning in these areas, in two years we have not left this coordination”.
