The Riviera Maya tourism industry has been pleasantly surprised by the lower amounts of sargassum arriving on Mexico’s Caribbean beaches this year, but lingering high temperatures mean the battle isn’t over yet. The first Level 2 sargassum alert of the season was issued by Mexico’s Navy (Semar) back in mid-April when a gigantic sargassum mass sighted weeks earlier seemed headed for Mexico’s shores. However, coordinated mitigation efforts have staved off the worst of Mexico’s sargassum invasion, reported the newspaper La Jornada Maya.
Carla Patricia Andrade Piedras, the director of the Tulum Hotel Association (AHT), told La Jornada Maya late last month that cleanup, temporary storage and disposal efforts have been organized more effectively this season, keeping the area’s beaches white and its Caribbean waters turquoise blue. Andrade said the AHT would continue cooperating with local, state and federal authorities to be prepared for the inevitable arrival of the floating brown algae as the summer progresses. The most recent update issued by the Quintana Roo Sargassum Monitoring System on May 17 indicated moderate-to-low amounts of sargassum along Riviera Maya beaches.
On May 31, the newspaper Riviera Maya News reported that sargassum arrivals along Playa del Carmen beaches were down considerably. A week later, La Jornada Maya reported that sargassum collection in Tulum this year was 75% lower than during the same January–May period in 2023. According to records k.
