Cancún Sargassum Arrivals Ease in September, but Officials Watch the Winds

Cancún, Quintana Roo — Sargassum is giving Cancún’s beaches some relief this month, with less of the macroalgae washing ashore in September as the municipality nears the end of its intensive seasonal response program.

Arturo Quintero, acting head of the Benito Juárez Public Services Department, said roughly 1,760 tons of sargassum have been removed so far in September — far below the 6,684 tons collected during August of last year.

Although the month is not over, the trend points to a decline in arrivals. Even so, officials are keeping watch, because shifts in wind and weather conditions can change where the seaweed concentrates.

To anticipate those movements, crews carry out three monitoring runs a day, at 5:00 a.m., noon and 5:30 p.m. According to Quintero, September is the last month covered by the intensive response program, though the work will not stop entirely. An operational watch will remain in place to handle possible extraordinary arrivals and to move staff to the beaches that need them.

Over the course of the season, about 30,100 tons of sargassum have been cleared from Benito Juárez beaches. Roughly 120 Public Services workers take part in the effort, along with more than 200 additional people who support the response and cleanup tasks.

Earlier in September, sargassum in the Gulf of Mexico was emerging as a new focus for environmental specialists. After a decline along the Quintana Roo coast, large concentrations of the macroalgae had begun to drift from their usual path toward the northern shoreline, approaching Veracruz, Tamaulipas and southern U.S. states including Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and western Florida.