Friday, June 6, 2025

Government will build four sargassum-gathering vessels

The federal government will build four vessels designed to collect sargassum from the sea, the governor of Quintana Roo said yesterday.

Carlos Joaquín said in a statement that federal authorities made the announcement at a meeting to discuss strategies to combat the arrival of the seaweed on Caribbean coast beaches.

Each of the catamaran-style boats will cost 15 million pesos (US $783,500) and the first will be ready for service in six months, the governor said. The navy will build the vessels.

They will be equipped with a crane that can deposit the seaweed they collect into another boat or a vehicle prior to disposal.

Sargassum has already started washing up on Quintana Roo beaches and it is predicted that more than a million tonnes of the unsightly and smelly macroalgae will invade the state’s coastline this year.

At yesterday’s meeting, federal, state and municipal authorities as well as tourism sector representatives and members of civil society discussed medium and long-term strategies to combat and manage the arrival of sargassum.

They also looked at funding sources for clean-up efforts and canvassed opinions about where the sargassum should be discarded after collection.

President López Obrador announced earlier this month that the navy would lead efforts to combat the macroalgae’s annual arrival but hotel owners said this week that government inaction is forcing them to act on their own to deal with the tonnes of sargassum that are washing up.

In contrast, Joaquín said that authorities have taken immediate action to clean up beaches.

Also present at yesterday’s meeting was navy chief José Rafael Ojeda Durán, who said that the military is developing its own satellite system to identify the presence of clumps of sargassum as they approach the coast.

He also said that weekly flyovers of the Caribbean Sea will help authorities detect which parts of the Quintana Roo coastline are worst affected by the seaweed.

Two navy vessels arrived off the Quintana Roo coast nearly two weeks ago and began gathering sargassum. In two days, they collected 10 tonnes.

Source: El Financiero (sp), Reportur (sp)

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
A young Mexican student wears a harvard sweatshirt

Mexico City teen who developed AI medical app wins Harvard Book Award

0
The recognition is given out by Harvard alumni to high-achieving students from a pool of 2,000 high schools from around the world.
workers in orange vests wade through water filled with sargassum seaweed

Record levels of sargassum could invade Quintana Roo beaches this summer

0
With millions of metric tons of seaweed floating in the Atlantic, the sargassum starting to pile up on Quintana Roo beaches is just the beginning.
several men seated at a dais

Governors of northeastern states agree to team up against border region insecurity

0
Repatriated immigrants are a rich source of crime victims near the border. Tamaulipas, Coahuila and Nuevo León want to work together to deal with the resulting rise in insecurity.