Mexican Navy to Deploy New Vessel to Double Sargassum Collection in Caribbean

Cancún, Quintana Roo — The Mexican Caribbean will receive a new Navy vessel this year to collect sargassum, Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Alicia Bárcena announced during a visit to the Oceanographic and Sargassum Monitoring Center of Quintana Roo.

The new vessel will help combat the macroalgae that affects tourist beaches in Quintana Roo, Bárcena said. It will undergo adaptation tasks before joining the oceanic sargassum vessel Natans as part of the ongoing strategy against sargassum.

Rear Admiral Topiltzin Flores Jaramillo said the ship will double the installed capacity for at-sea sargassum collection. “With this ship, we will practically double our installed capacity for collecting sargassum at sea, which currently stands at 624 tons per day… and we will prevent it from reaching the beaches,” he said.

Esteban Amaro Mauricio, director of the Quintana Roo Sargassum Monitoring Network, explained that the monitoring center analyzes satellite images and sends them to the Navy. He detailed that sargassum travels 25,000 kilometers across the Atlantic Ocean, starting from the Sargasso Sea, passing Africa, crossing the ocean, and arriving at Caribbean coasts.

“It is a whole process, a great loop of 25,000 kilometers that starts across the entire Atlantic Ocean, beginning in what is the Sargasso Sea — or what was the Sargasso Sea, because it is getting smaller, it is already shrinking significantly — and now it makes this great loop across the entire Atlantic, passes by Africa, crosses the ocean and reaches the Caribbean coasts,” he said.

Bárcena also said the government is working with the state of Quintana Roo to install a circular economy park, aiming to turn sargassum from waste into a resource. She added that they will work with companies that process sargassum and transform it into products for the construction industry.