Puerto Morelos, Q.R. — The mayor of Puerto Morelos says they are ready to tackle the sargasso issues likely to arrive this year.
Puerto Morelos mayor Laura Fernández Piña, says they have a strategic plan to take on this year’s sargasso that will involve governments, hotels, specialists and the general population.
“In Puerto Morelos we have prepared to mitigate the impact of sargasso along the 18 kilometers of beaches of our destination, so that one of our main assets looks good for visitors and follows the economic growth of the municipality” she said.
The president of la Conferencia Nacional de Municipios de México, Laura Lynn Fernández Piña, stressed that despite the lack of algae over recent months, they have continued to work on a strategy to combat the seaweed.
“We have just supervised the operation of a boat to collect sargasso from the sea and thus prevent it from landing on the beaches of the destination, because that is where the biggest problem comes from, which is to be able to remove it from our sands.
“Only last year, coupled with the support of sweeping units, dump trucks and other equipment, it was necessary to put into operation a huge human force to strengthen the work,” she said.
Laura Fernandez stressed that in 2018, more than 80,000 man hours were invested in the cleaning of beaches in which personnel from the municipality participated, to which fishermen, hoteliers, tourism service providers also helped, including students and the general population.
“We arrived at 2019 with an intense work of preparation, studies and analysis to face the sargassuo problem. Besides that, we already have the experience of last year. This phenomenon of nature will not take us by surprise,” she said.
According to experts, the climatic phenomenon known as El Niño, which favors higher ocean temperatures, will cause the arrival of seaweed to land on beaches again this year around the US and Latin America.