A ‘Brown Tide’ of Seaweed is Choking the Caribbean and Worrying Scientists

By Rodrigo Pérez Ortega, Knowable Magazine
Sep 11, 2019 12:00 AMNov 19, 2019 12:33 AM
SargassumBeach
Dead seaweed chokes beaches across the Caribbean every year. (Credit: Playa del Carmen/Shutterstock)

Newsletter

Sign up for our email newsletter for the latest science news
 

(Inside Science) — In the summer of 2018, thousands of tons of a prolific seaweed called sargassum invaded the pristine beaches of the Caribbean. In Mexico, the turquoise waters and clear, smooth sand of the touristy Mayan Riviera turned into a brown mess. The sight of sargassum — a type of brown algae — and its smell scared tourists away, and local ecosystems started to suffer greatly.

This spring, the seaweed invasion was comparable to last year’s, if not worse. In May, Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador instructed the country’s navy to lead the beach-cleaning effort and to prevent the sargassum from reaching the coast. In June, the situation was so bad that the southeastern state of Quintana Roo — home of the tourist destination of Cancún — declared a state of emergency.

To understand the extent of the ecological problem and the feasibility of the proposed solutions, Inside Science’s Rodrigo Pérez Ortega talked to Rosa Elisa Rodríguez Martínez, a coral reef ecologist who works at the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s Institute of Marine Science and Limnology, in Puerto Morelos, a small coastal town 24 miles south of Cancún.

This interview was conducted in Spanish and has been edited for clarity and brevity.

0 free articles left
Want More? Get unlimited access for as low as $1.99/month

Already a subscriber?

Register or Log In

0 free articlesSubscribe
Discover Magazine Logo
Want more?

Keep reading for as low as $1.99!

Subscribe

Already a subscriber?

Register or Log In

Stay Curious

Sign up for our weekly newsletter and unlock one more article for free.

 

View our Privacy Policy


Want more?
Keep reading for as low as $1.99!


Log In or Register

Already a subscriber?
Find my Subscription

More From Discover
Recommendations From Our Store
Stay Curious
Join
Our List

Sign up for our weekly science updates.

 
Subscribe
To The Magazine

Save up to 40% off the cover price when you subscribe to Discover magazine.

Copyright © 2024 Kalmbach Media Co.