A few weeks ago, the Municipal President of Solidaridad, Estefanía Mercado, acknowledged the serious consequences that worsening beach erosion in the region—exacerbated by sargassum collection—could have on the tourism sector.
Despite recognizing the vital role beaches play in driving tourism, the official stated that the city council lacked the financial resources to tackle the problem on its own.
“A joint effort between the public and private sectors is necessary to implement sustainable solutions that preserve the tourist appeal of the Riviera Maya,” said Mercado.
However, authorities took action after local hoteliers, including Andrea Lotito, Vice President of the Riviera Maya Hotel Association, urged Mercado to develop immediate strategies to address the problem, emphasizing that “we all live off tourism.” Lolito highlighted that maintaining clean coastlines benefits not only hoteliers but also rural communities.
While a comprehensive beach recovery program has not yet been finalized, Lotito praised the positive impact of returning sand collected from sargassum to key points along Playa del Carmen.
According to recent reports, the Federal Maritime Land Zone (Zofemat) has recovered over 7,000 tons of sand and returned it to the coastlines over the past three years. This recovery is necessary because sargassum collection inadvertently “steals” sand from beaches, and with thousands of algae removed each year, the resulting erosion is quite significant.
Lotito is hopeful that the new municipal government will continue developing strategies like these to maintain the flow of visitors next year.
For the time being, authorities have announced that the 2024 sargassum season in the Mexican Caribbean is officially over, thanks to a change in ocean temperatures.
Drawing from several weeks of satellite data, Esteban Amaro Mauricio, a hydrobiologist and Director of the sargassum Monitoring Network, confirmed that travelers can look forward to a “sargassum-free Christmas, season.
Thus, this might be the right time to plan a getaway to the Mexican Caribbean while the beaches are looking Instagram-worthy.
However, time is limited, as experts estimate algae will return between late March and early April.
Currently, 6.2 million metric tons of seaweed have been spotted off the northwest coast of Africa, much of it waiting for the right time and conditions to head toward Caribbean nations.
Forecasters say it’s impossible to predict how severe the 2025 sargassum season will be. Still, factors like rising ocean temperatures and eutrophication suggest that this issue is likely to intensify and persist for the next decades.
Sargassum began to significantly appear on Mexican beaches around 2011, with especially heavy arrivals starting in 2015. Environmental changes, such as shifts in ocean currents and rising nutrient levels, seem to be accelerating sargassum growth across the Atlantic and Caribbean.
Though these algae have been essential for marine ecosystems for centuries, recent massive arrivals have overwhelmed beaches from Cancun to Tulum, posing serious financial challenges for authorities, hoteliers, and coastal communities. Marine life has also been heavily impacted as seaweed overproduction suffocates coral reefs, dolphins, sea turtles, and mangroves.