Navy Sent to Defend Mexico's Caribbean Coastline from Invading Seaweed Harriet Alexander - The Telegraph
go to original October 31, 2015

Cancun: 180km beach covered in seaweed (euronews)

Mexico has sent in the navy to help clean up its beaches, as the country struggles to cope with a tide of thick seaweed.

Parts of the coast have for months been coated in sargassum – a brown, sticky algae. The coastline from Texas to Tobago has been hit – with a beach in the Dominican Republic, Boca Chica, removing 600 tons of sargassum from the white sands. Sargassum has now reached the West African coast, with Sierra Leone's idyllic beaches now being coated by weeds up to two feet deep.

“Sargassum is naturally occurring," said Vincent Sweeney, from the UN environmental program. "But before 2011 this quantity has never been witnessed. It is the intensity of it right now that is causing concern; 2015 is one of the most intense years we have seen and it’s affecting tourism, marine life and fisheries.”

Mexico is now ramping up its efforts to clean the pristine sands in time for the peak Christmas season. The country’s Caribbean coastline attracts more than 10 million visitors a year, and so far the government has spent 150 million pesos to remove the mess.

Read the rest at The Telegraph

Photo: Associated Press

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