As Seaweed Piles Up, Caribbean Bets On Boats, Barriers And Biofuel

By Sarah Morland

MEXICO CITY, July 31 (Reuters) – Hundreds of Mexican hotel workers, tractor operators and specialized Navy personnel are heading out to the beach each day at dawn to clean record masses of rotting sargassum seaweed off pristine Caribbean coastlines around popular tourist resorts.

The seasonal phenomenon has caused hotels across the Caribbean to cut rates and invest millions of dollars in clearing up piles of the foul-smelling algae from their beaches, while governments and businesses look for solutions.

HOW IT STARTED

Sargassum – a brown seaweed that forms floating mats on the ocean surface – was historically confined to the so-called Sargasso