Authorities in coastal cities along the Mexican Caribbean have disclosed that factors such as distance, travel speed, and ocean currents have led experts to predict an absence of sargassum seaweed influx this summer.
Cancun, the Riviera Maya and other popular tourist spots will be sargassum-free this summer, according to Esteban Jesus Amaro Mauricio, director of the Quintana Roo Sargassum Monitoring Network, in an interview with Riviera Maya News.
Because of the distance, the speed of travel and the currents with which the sargassum comes from Africa, Amaro Mauricio said that daily monitoring of the foul-smelling seaweed indicates that it will not arrive in the next three months.
“From what we have been observing through the satellite it is very clean,” Amaro Mauricio told the Riviera Maya News. “There is almost no sargassum between Jamaica and the Yucatan Peninsula. As the sargassum continues to move north like it has been, we will have lean months, that is, we are not going to have a significant presence.”
The next wave of seaweed is not expected until after the summer vacations, according to Amaro Mauricio, who also notes that the sargassum that arrives then will continue to be minimal.
Small patches of the seaweed may eventually reach beaches in Quintana Roo and adjacent areas, but according to officials, municipal workers remove them immediately before they begin to stink.