Playa del Carmen, Q.R. — Sargassum arrival along Playa del Carmen beaches continues to be lower overall than last year.
Lourdes Várguez Ocampo, the Secretary of Sustainable Environment and Climate Change, says they expect the amount to increase due to the increase in high temperatures.
Last year on the last day of May, the municipality had already collected around 9,800 tons. She said that this year, they have collected around 8,000 tons, approximately 1,800 fewer tons of sargassum than last year.
“There is a lot of sargassum arriving. Right now we are seeing the effect of the heat with the arrival of sargassum, which has restulted in around 8,000 tons of sargassum collected since January.
“These days, most of the sargassum has been observed on beaches in the center of Playa del Carmen and those located in the northern area of the municipality of Solidaridad,” she said.
There, workers from the Federal Maritime-Terrestrial Zone Directorate (Zofemat) carry out beach cleaning along the coast where levels tend to gradually increase.
Lourdes Várguez said the arrival of sargassum is related to the increase in temperature and the maritime currents from the southeast Caribbean Sea, conditions that are present at this time.
She also said that last year, the sargassum stopped arriving in September, something they had not seen in a few years. With that, she says they are hoping for an early finish again this year.
