Riviera Maya, Q.R. — Recent winds forced an abundance of unexpected sargassum onto beaches from Cancun to Xcalak. Cleaning brigades were seen along public sandy areas removing seaweed that had been pushed ashore overnight.
The sargassum began to arrive late Wednesday due to strong wind gusts. On Thursday morning, a majority of Cancun and Riviera Maya beaches had recorded sargassum. In Cancun, seaweed had reached the shores of Playas Coral, Delfines, Las Perlas, Langosta, Tortuga and El Niño.
According to Esteban Jesús Amaro Mauricio, the Director of the Sargassum Monitoring Network, sargassum also made landfall in Puerto Morelos and along the eastern side of Cozumel.
In Tulum, sargassum cleaning brigades were activated after a lull since late October when the seaweed stopped arriving, at least in large masses. Local monitoring reported around 21 tons had made landfall along areas of the municipal coastline.
In Playa del Carmen, federal maritime staff from Zofemat were also seen along public beach areas forking the sargassum into wheelbarrows. According to Samantha Álvarez, the Municipal Secretary of Environment and Climate Change in Playa del Carmen, approximately 25 tons arrived overnight.
Due to the amount of seaweed, a large team was sent to remove what had washed up on the beaches. Brigades from Federal Maritime Terrestrial Zone (Zofemat) worked into the evening and by 5:00 p.m., had already collected 22.5 tons of sargassum, Álvarez confirmed.
Local monitoring reported around 32 tons of seaweed arrived between Puerto Morelos and Puerto Aventuras. Zofemat crews continued lifting the sargassum from Quintana Roo beaches into Friday where, according to Amaro Mauricio, another ton had washed up overnight.
He says according to the University of Florida, some seven million tons of sargassum is already being monitored via satellite floating from Africa to the Gulf of Mexico. He indicated that 2026 could be “as intense” as 2025 where, according to Governor Mara Lezama, approximately 120,000 tons was collected last year from Quintana Roo beaches.
According to the Marina sargassum bulletin, the unexpected incoming seaweed reached the coast of Quintana Roo as far south as Mahahual and Xcalak where just over 23 tons made landfall.
This recent arrival of sargassum along the Riviera Maya coast is considered out of season and is now being monitored since the seaweed is not expected again until April.
Riviera Maya News serving Quintana Roo Mexico since 2014
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