Belize’s ‘Never-Ending Sargassum Battle’ Just Got Smarter

Belize’s “never-ending battle” with sargassum is far from over, but officials say the fight just got ‘smarter.’ This year, the country faced one of its worst sargassum crises, with tons of rotting seaweed blanketing beaches, disrupting coastal life, and leaving residents battling a constant clean-up.

There’s a glimpse of hope against that battle. Last week, the Sargassum Task Force received new tools to better monitor and manage the seaweed’s movement before it hits shore.

The donation was funded by the Government of Taiwan through the Central American Commission on Environment and Development and includes a drone, a laptop, and a Sargassum Forecasting Model called SAMtool. The technology uses satellite imagery and ocean current data to track large mats of sargassum across the Caribbean and predict their arrival.

Minister of Blue Economy and Marine Conservation, Andre Perez, welcomed the support and called it a step towards a more strategic response. “With this that was presented to DOE with the different technology, we’re able to track all these huge mats of Sargassum coming across the Caribbean. We’ll be able to attack it in a smarter way,” he said. “It’s a battle. It’s constant. It’s a never-ending battle.”