Puerto Morelos, Q.R. — Governor Mara Lezama Espinosa declared the official start of the 2025 sargassum season Tuesday. The official season start was kicked off Tuesday in the seaside town of Puerto Morelos.
Governor Lezama says the task of keeping beaches clean is a shared responsibility, including environmental stewardship, the protection of our natural resources and beauty, sustainable development, and tourism success.
At Playa Ojo de Agua Governor Lezama, accompanied by Mayor Blanca Merari Tziu, and the Coordinator of the Sargassum Response Strategy of the Navy, Rear Admiral Topiltzin Tlacaletl Flores Jaramillo, said the state is now prepared for the 2025 sargassum season.
“We will not allow this phenomenon to halt our destiny of well-being, nor rob us of one of the most valuable things we have: our living nature. We are already working, in coordination with the Navy, with the municipalities, with civil society, with the tourism sector, with scientists. We are deploying a comprehensive strategy: barriers, collection, cleanup, recovery, and, above all, awareness,” she said.
Rear Admiral Topiltzin Tlacaletl Flores Jaramillo, explained that monitoring phases are being implemented to locate floating masses that could impact beaches, collecting them on two fronts: oceanic and coastal. The first phase uses 11 coastal sargassum harvesting vessels and 22 smaller vessels.
During the containment phase, barriers are installed at strategic locations to contain the algae and redirect it to collection points. Approximately 9,500 meters of barriers have already been installed off the state’s coasts.
Óscar Rébora Aguilera, who heads the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (SEMA), said so far this year, a total of 10,236 tons of sargassum has been collected within the coastal areas of Playa del Carmen, Othón P. Blanco and Puerto Morelos where this year, the largest amounts of sargassum has arrived.
