Playa del Carmen, Q.R. — The Secretariat of Environment and Climate Change of Solidaridad says they will use sargassum for its coral regeneration program this year. Samantha Álvarez, the Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Cambio Climático de Solidaridad, says the decision is from a winning project for sargassum use held last year.
According to Álvarez, the municipality intends to collaborate with Thrasos3D, the winning company of the innovative sargassum resuse project. The company won in the category of Best Initiative for Sustainable Technological Innovation in the Sustainable Tourism Awards held in November in Playa del Carmen.
The Thrasos3D project involves the regeneration of corals using artificial reefs manufactured with 3D printing and collected sargassum as the main material. Álvarez says the collaboration would include training local personnel in the handling and processing of sargassum for this type of initiative.
“We want to work together and have courses to keep the sargassum in optimal conditions for this type of work,” said Álvarez.
She says the project represents a new opportunity to use the sargassum that is collected along the coast. While there are local companies making compost from the seaweed, Álvarez says to date, no other companies have approached her to process the seaweed for environmental purposes.
This innovative approach, she says, not only seeks to mitigate the negative impacts of sargassum, but also to turn it into a useful resource for the regeneration of reefs, which are essential for marine biodiversity and tourism activity in the region.
Last year, a test project using the sargassum based material to regenerate coral was tested off the coast of Cozumel. The project consisted of lego-like modules where live coral were inserted into the sargassum versions for regeneration.
