Hurricane Isaias Disrupts Water Sports Services in Playa del Carmen

Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo — Hurricane Isaias, churning in the Gulf of Mexico, forced the closure of Playa del Carmen’s port and left roughly 50 water sports service providers without work, while driving a fresh surge of sargassum onto the resort town’s beaches.

The port was closed in the early hours and reopened in the afternoon by naval authorities, but the sea stayed rough and workers struggled to recover, said José Gómez Burgos, secretary of the Mar Caribe tourism cooperative.

“The port closure was decreed in the early hours, but by the afternoon the naval authorities reopened it. Still, the disruption continued because it is hard to bounce back that quickly,” Gómez Burgos said. “Today the sea is still choppy, with very strong swells from Hurricane Isaias, which has brought this spell of bad weather. The situation feels difficult again for all the workers.”

He stressed that the storm did not hit the area directly and that residents were never at risk. By late afternoon, the hurricane was approaching the southern coast of the United States. Isaias is the first hurricane of the season.

The storm’s side effects in Playa del Carmen included a strong gust of wind and rain around 4 a.m. that lasted only a few minutes and caused no structural damage. Beyond that, the coast has seen only heavy surf.

Sargassum Returns in Large Amounts

Sargassum, however, has returned in high volumes, mainly along the stretches of coast near downtown Playa del Carmen, where the buildup of the macroalga has once again damaged the coastal dunes.

Mexican Navy personnel arrived at the Playa del Carmen shoreline to join the collection efforts.

A tour of the coast showed that erosion, combined with the seaweed, has left the beaches impassable.