In collaboration with IPN (Instituto Politécnico Nacional-México) and The POP Movement
Massive arrival of Sargassum to the coasts of Quintana Roo, Mexican Caribbean, and its impact on Public Health.
The massive arrival of sargassum on the coast of Quintana Roo, although it is recurrent, is not constant. There is data on massive arrivals from 2011 and during the period 2012-2018, it can be considered that the arrival of sargassum was considered within normal ranges. As of 2018 and to date, the arrival of large amounts of sargassum has been recorded, the control of which has been challenging and complicated.
Thousand tons of sargassum have been removed from the beaches or collected in the sea and deposited on land in sites designated for it, in the different municipalities of the state of Quintana Roo. Various problems associated with the presence and decomposition of these macroalgae have been observed, such as the bad appearance of the beaches due to their excessive presence, the release of odors (gases such as methane and hydrogen sulfide ) that can be harmful to health, poor quality of the water that takes on a brown color, affectation of coastal ecosystems such as seagrasses and corals, significant loss of biodiversity, etc., and also skin infections due to direct contact with sargassum, affecting not only the inhabitants and tourists who they come to vacation but also and to a greater degree to the workers who continuously carry out activities to remove macroalgae in the sea and on the beaches, until handling them at their final destination on land.