Red Alert: Belize Heads into Worst Sargassum Phase Yet

Belize is heading for a Sargassum red phase. Despite an all-hands response from coastline communities, the country may be entering its worst phase yet.

The San Pedro Town Council confirmed the warning in a Monday statement that outlined an extensive response. It said crews have been working from dawn to dusk with tractors, dump trucks, and upgraded equipment to clear beaches, while the municipality expands its workforce and establishes composting sites to recover sand.

The council is also in talks with private landowners to secure long-term deposition sites, and said it is continuing to lobby the government for additional support.

Meanwhile, Tourism Minister Anthony Mahler, who sits on the cabinet subcommittee on sargassum, was candid about the scale of the problem last Thursday. “I don’t think we’re looking at this heavily as a region,” he said. “I don’t think we have worked on this collectively and with science behind it to see how we can deal with it.”

Mahler pointed to Mexico’s current battle against sargassum as a reflection of the scale. “We got lucky over the last month or so. Most of it went up to Mexico, and they are taking a beating right now, and they have much bigger budgets, and they have the Coast Guard working and all kind of things,” he said.

“It still just keeps coming,” Mahler added. “By the time you wake up in the morning, a boatload or a beach load of sargassum has washed up on the beaches.”

In the meantime, Belize is throwing more resources at the problem than ever before, with growing budgets to tackle the thick mats of sargassum that keep washing up ashore.