Puerto Morelos, Q.R. — Mayor Blanca Merari Tziu Muñoz welcomed European Union (EU) Commissioner Jozef Síkela for a recent meeting. The pair met during his visit to Mexico to explore how sargassum can become an economic resource.
Sikela is vising the country to learn how sargassum can be transformed into renewable and sustainable bioproducts that generate green jobs and circular value chains in Mexico and the Caribbean.
She explained that this season was particularly challenging and involved “an intensive fight against sargassum.” To date in 2025, organized beach cleaning brigades collected more than 4,750 tons of the macroalgae in an effort to keep tourist beaches clean and suitable for visitors.
The EU Commissioner and his entourage, who visited the Navy vessel ARM Natans, dedicated to collecting sargassum in the open sea, received a briefing from Captain Mario Alberto Barrera Navarro, who is leading the strategy against the algae.
He briefed his European guests on the work being carried out on the high seas and in shallow waters with the support of sargassum barges to contain the macroalgae.
He also reported that during this season, the Navy installed more than 9,000 meters of anti-sargassum barriers and deployed 380 personnel, 11 vessels and three ships dedicated to collection efforts.
Guests also boarded the BSC 210 sargassum barge where they took a brief tour to learn how it works, as well as how the sargassum barriers installed in shallow waters.
The visitors were also welcomed at the Fiscal Dock by the head of the State Government’s Environment Secretariat, Óscar Rébora, and by Víctor Manuel Vidal Martínez, head of the Mexican Institute for Fisheries and Aquaculture Research.
