Cancun, Q.R. — Authorities say the amount of sargassum arriving in Cancun in three days is equivalent to a month’s worth. José Antonio de la Torre Chambé, the General Director of Public Services says the arrival has not only been more in volume, but also more frequently when compared to last year.
“What we’ve had in two or three days this year, last year we had in a month,” he said. “The arrival amounts are more frequent, closer together. We have monitoring starting at 5:30 in the morning, and at 10:00 in the morning at which time the mayor makes decisions about which beaches and what personnel will be sent to remove the seaweed,” he explained.
According to de la Torre Chambé, sargassum is collected on the same day it lands on Cancun beaches. He says personnel do not wait for the buildup to accumulate “because it would be almost impossible to deal with it.”
To clean the seven public beaches, which the municipal government is responsible for, they have 290 people from Public Services and from the Federal Maritime Terrestrial Zone (Zofemat).
He said in the last three weeks, the most significant grounding has occurred at Playas Delfines, Marlin, Ballenas and Chac Mool.
