Mahahual, Q.R. — Businessmen in Mahahual have taken the task of sargasso removal personally as nearly 100 manually remove the seaweed.
The accumulation of sargasso on the beaches of Mahahual has motivated businesses to form brigades for its removal. Sergio Thompson, owner of a Mahahual restaurant explained that approximately 100 entrepreneurs, including hoteliers, restaurateurs and service providers, have banded together to manually remove the unwanted seagrass.
He says that several brigades have been formed across the two kilometer stretch of visitor beaches where they have been collecting an average of seven tons per day.
He explained that most days, the businesses are out on the beaches by 6:00 a.m., where they begin raking the seagrass from the beginning of the beach area at the base of the Secretariat of the Navy of Mexico (Semar), to the fishing pier, which is the area with the highest concentration of visitors.
“What has accumulated in the afternoon and all night until dawn is collected the next morning among all the comrades. We are picking it up and fortunately, those who have lived here for many years, are also helping,” he noted.
“People are out for a few hours each day because by 10:00 a.m., visitors are already out enjoying the beaches,” he added.
Thompson says that they barely clean the two-kilometer stretch before more seaweed arrives, noting that throughout the day, the sargasso continues to arrive from Pulticub to Xcalak.
“It is necessary to get more help because the problem extends for many kilometers. Meanwhile, we want to get the most in the way of sales during the holiday season,” he said.
Employers are out each morning with shovels and rakes to collect the arriving seaweed and later use wheelbarrows to move it for deposit.