Isla Mujeres Earns Platinum Beach Distinction for Second Straight Year

Isla Mujeres, Quintana Roo — Isla Mujeres has become the first municipality in Mexico to hold the Platinum Beach distinction for a second consecutive year, an award for excellence given with no observations, officials said. The island also renewed its international Blue Flag certification at Playa Norte and Playa Centro.

Dayana Alejandra Pérez Medina, director of the Federal Maritime Land Zone office (ZOFEMAT), said the recognition reflects strict standards on cleanliness, safety, conservation and rapid response to sargassum seaweed.

The Platinum Beach award, which places the island’s shoreline among the best in the country, came with a special mention for innovation: the municipality uses a drone to monitor its beaches.

Blue Flag nearly lost over unpaid debt

Pérez Medina said the Blue Flag certification was almost lost because of a 9 million peso debt left by the previous administration headed by federal deputy Juan Carrillo Soberanis, who is on leave. That government collected ZOFEMAT concession fees but failed to report the required 30 percent to the state, and it cut staffing to a minimum, leaving beaches without maintenance.

The municipality was forced to lower the flags and lost Blue Flag status for two years, she said. At one point the local government was close to losing the authority to collect ZOFEMAT revenue altogether, leaving it without the money to hire enough staff to restore the beaches.

Mayor Atenea Gómez Ricalde, who is currently on leave, led negotiations that allowed the debt to be paid in installments, which in turn made it possible to hire staff, restore the beaches and recover the certification along with all the services and conditions it requires.

Hands, not heavy machinery

The director said daily cleaning crews sift the sand by hand to remove microplastics, cigarette butts and other waste, a method that preserves the island’s white sand rather than degrading it. Sargassum is likewise cleared by hand by teams of workers joined by residents and private concession holders, rather than with heavy machinery that could erode the shoreline.

The drone monitoring allows authorities to spot incoming brown tides early and take preventive measures. The seaweed cannot be stopped from arriving, but advance warning prevents the island from being overwhelmed, she said.

Clean sand alone is not enough, Pérez Medina added: the certification also requires lifeguards, information kiosks, tourist police and environmental education, with municipal departments coordinating within their own areas of responsibility. She noted that a single cigarette butt can lower a beach’s score.

The municipality is now working on adding a third site, Media Luna, which would fall under the Conservation category, where wildlife such as nesting sea turtles take priority over tourist use.