Navy support to combat sargassum is insufficient say Quintana Roo hoteliers

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The report from the University of South Florida establishes that the volume of algae in the sea increased by more than 60% between December 2020 and January 2021.

Cancun Quintana Roo. The hotelier Alejandro Zozaya, president of Apple Leisure Group, considered the efforts to combat sargassum insufficient, as he assured that most of the weight is falling on the removal of the seaweed from the beaches with resources from the hoteliers themselves. 

He assured that so far “the supposed strategy of the Navy Secretariat in the state is non-existent “, despite the fact that this year the recall of a volume of seaweed similar to that of 2018 is predicted, one of the most critical years for the Mexican Caribbean. due to this phenomenon. 

“What strategy? The sargassum is already arriving, it is already here and we do not see the strategy “, questioned the businessman, who added that the only effective way to combat sargassum is by collecting it at sea,” but there is no action from the federal government in this regard. ”. 

The report from the University of South Florida establishes that the volume of sargassum in the sea increased by more than 60% between December 2020 and January of this year, going from 3.2 million to 5.1 million metric tons, which is an amount similar to that presented in 2018, most of which ended up on the coast of Quintana Roo. 

In a statement on March 17, the Marine Secretariat ( Semar ) reported that it has begun with the installation of the algae containment barriers, starting with the beaches of Tulum, Puerto Morelos, and Playa del Carmen, as they are the most visited areas by national and foreign tourists.

Accumulation on southern coasts

He added that these tasks began after the detection of an accumulation of sargassum on the southern coasts of Quintana Roo, specifically in Xcalak and Mahahual.

According to the agency, the latest forecast until that date indicated that the Mexican Caribbean maintained a low coverage and low density of sargassum, however, they detected the agglomeration of algae in the north of the Honduran coast, which could be directed towards the state.

During the visit of the president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, to Quintana Roo on Tuesday, April 4, the head of the Secretary of the Navy, José Rafael Ojeda Durán, reported that they currently have 289 elements deployed on the coasts of the state, as well as two units surface area, 12 sargassum machines, 16 smaller vessels, 4,252 meters of containment barriers, as well as tractors and sweepers.

He added that from 2019 to date they have collected 108,000 tons of sargassum on the beaches, as well as 1,444 tons in the sea, to add a total of 109,444 tons since they began to coordinate the strategy to combat sargassum in Quintana Roo.

Source: eleconomista.com.mx

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