Cancun, Q.R. — Cancun City Hall says official sargassum photos will be released with geolocation time and date stamps to counteract misinformation. Antonio de la Torre Chambé, the Director of Municipal Public Services, made the comment after circulating social media images show a very different story.
“From now on, the photos we take will include the exact location, time and date to ensure the information we share is true and reliable,” he said.
The move, he reported, is being made due to allegations of excessive sargassum on Cancun beaches. The government says they will implement a geolocation and time-stamp system on official photographs in order to display verified and accurate information on the actual status of city beaches.
De la Torre Chambé says the geolocation stamps will counteract misinformation and provide accurate timestamped photos for national and international circulation.
“We are going to implement a requirement that each photo show the geolocation, time and exact day it was taken. This way we can ensure that the information we share is real and verifiable,” he explained.
De la Torre said that in recent days, weather conditions have been favorable in significantly reducing the arrival of sargassum. He reported that last weekend, only between 300 and 400 kilos of sargassum was collected compared to the 62 tons removed in a single day the previous week.
On Monday, Cancun Mayor Ana Paty Peralta said that in Cancun, they continue to address the sargassum grounding, deploying removal brigades every day to keep the beaches in optimal condition.
Accompanied by the directors of Public Services, Ecology, and the Federal Maritime-Terrestrial Zone (Zofemat), as well as the Secretaries of Tourism and General of the City Council, Peralta said that another major beach cleanup will be scheduled for June 28, bringing together hotels, civil associations, government personnel and resident volunteers.
“I’m asking them to be fully coordinated and under the same direction. We need all the hotels to participate, literally all of us to start cleaning up as soon as the sargassum arrives when it’s much easier to control it,” she said.
Among other actions, she also indicated that training will be planned for tourism staff to learn harvesting techniques that comply with environmental regulations. They will also be asked to keep logs for better control and monitoring, allowing for efficient daily use of machinery and personnel. This is in addition to the municipal action, which will have 290 workers assigned daily, but could increase to 400 in the event of a mass influx.
Oscar Rébora Aguilera, the State Secretary of Ecology and Environment, said the incoming sargassum forecast for the next two months shows Cancun will not be hit hard, however, it is important to be prepared because ocean currents can change.
The challenge in general, Aguilera said, is not only to contain the presence of sargassum, but also to respond appropriately when it arrives.
