Just How Bad Is Sargassum Getting Along Belize’s Coast?
Sargassum continues to pile up along Belize’s coastline, with residents and businesses in coastal communities struggling to keep up as large volumes wash ashore day after day.
“Usually, this time of year, by September, the tides have changed. It’s the storm season. We start to see the beaches start to clean out, but this year, it’s coming in right now, today, and worse than it’s ever come in,” Coutant said.
Coutant says the problem has become increasingly difficult to manage. While some larger hotels are cleaning their beaches every day, she says the sargassum continues to accumulate.
“In places where nobody’s working on it, it’s 10, 15, 20 feet out,” she said.
Coutant says the volume has also affected people’s ability to use the coastline, with some residents travelling to other parts of the island for a swim because of conditions along their usual beaches.
The issue has also raised concerns within the tourism industry. Belize Hotel Association President Reynaldo A. Malik Jr. says managing sargassum cannot fall entirely on private businesses, with government and local authorities also responsible for undeveloped stretches of coastline.
“It really does need a partnership,” Malik said. “We have to have a plan, and that is my, where I get agitated… Because I have not seen a plan that works.”
Prime Minister John Briceño also acknowledged the situation during his State of the Nation Address on Tuesday, saying the heavy sargassum invasion has begun to take a toll on tourist arrivals, particularly in San Pedro, Caye Caulker, Hopkins and Placencia.
Briceño said the Belize Tourism Board (BTB), with government support, has developed a rescue plan that will draw on BTB resources, along with grants and loans from international financial institutions, to acquire specialised equipment and respond to the problem.
In Placencia, local marine equipment company Sea Solution Ltd. says it has been developing a system intended to intercept sargassum before it reaches the shoreline.
Company owner and designer Edgar Carballo says the system uses floating barriers that can be positioned according to the currents, wind and geography of a particular location.
Carballo says each barrier is 200 metres long, about 3.5 feet deep and has a stated capacity of up to 74 tons of floating sargassum.
For Placencia, Carballo says the company estimates that six or seven units could be needed, and that the system could prevent about 90 percent of sargassum from reaching the shoreline without affecting the entrance or channels in Placencia.
Coutant says residents are not expecting an immediate or perfect solution, but want to see greater attention given to the problem.
“We don’t want a magic solution,” she said. “We would love a magic solution, but we know there’s not a magic solution out there. But we want to feel like our government hears us and wants to help out.”