Playa del Carmen, Q.R. — Days of southerly winds have left at least one area of Playa del Carmen in seaweed. Over 100 tons of sargazo was removed from a central beach known to accumulate seaweed.
Over the past few days, Zofemat (Federal Maritime Terrestrial Zone) cleaning staff have been at Playa El Recodo. More than two dozen staff participated in the two day removal of sargassum that was pushed toward the beach by recent winds.
Irving Lili Madrigal, who heads Playa del Carmen Zofemat (Zona Federal Marítimo Terrestre), said 132.3 tons of sargassum was manually lifted from that beach. Due to the extreme beach erosion at El Recodo, machinery cannot be used, so the seaweed was removed by hand.
The 132.3 tons of washed up seaweed was collected using pitch forks and rakes along the beach between 14th and 16th streets.
According to Madrigal, from January to date, 2,000 tons of seaweed has already been cleared from public Playa del Carmen beaches.
This last bout was due to days of southerly winds that pushed the seaweed toward the coast where the natural current forced its landfall.
The cove of Playa El Recodo in central Playa del Carmen has always been a hotspot for sargassum collection. Around 50 cleaning staff continue to hit the beaches on a daily basis clearing away seaweed that makes landfall.
Out-of-season sassum began to arrive along the Quintana Roo coast in early January. Since then, officials started installing at-sea barriers to stop the seaweed from making landfall.
The installation project is ongoing and more than half complete. For 2026, official have extended the sargassum barriers from around 6,000 meters to 9,500.
