Cancun, Q.R. — In coming weeks, monitoring of the movement of sargasso toward the state’s coast will begin by means of radar and satellites according to the Intersecretarial Commission of the Government of Mexico.
A recent meeting revealed the intention to begin monitoring the movement and eventual arrival of the seaweed that has plagued parts of the US and most of Latin America for several seasons.
The meeting was headed by the Undersecretary of Management for the Protección Ambiental de la Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (Semarnat), Sergio Sánchez Martínez, who said that the idea is to generate a daily report of the location of the sargasso and its trajectory.
The Environmental Protection Agency of Quintana Roo also says they are prepared for the sargasso combat strategy this year, teaming up with the Secretariat of Ecology and Environment along with local city councils.
Miguel Ángel Nadal of la Procuraduría de Protección al Ambiente (PPA) de Quintana Roo, says that they expect the amount of algae this year to be very similar to last year’s.
“The sargasso has not stopped arriving”, he says adding that “An amount at least similar to what we received last year is expected for 2019, but we are already in coordination with SEMA.”
He says that each municipality will be allocated at least one area to deposit the sargasso, however, there could be more depending on the amount that arrives. He says that businesses removing the algae should not just dump it anywhere since a problem they have noticed with the seaweed is that its acidic characteristics tends to damage the soil upon which it is deposited.
