For most travelers to Cozumel island in the Mexican Caribbean, seaweed is an annoying part of a beach vacation getaway. It washes up on the shore and if not removed in a short period of time becomes a stinky unsightly coastal invader.
Even the hotels and local authorities hate the presence of sargassum in the water and washing up on the beach. It is so bad in Cozumel and surrounding areas that they have called in the Mexican Navy to fight the problem and named seaweed public enemy number one.
What To Do With Sargassum?
The problem always has been for hotels and officials in the Mexican Caribbean about what to do with all of the sargassum.
For the most part, the strategy has been all about stopping the seaweed from arriving on tourist beaches with an intricate, and very expensive, set of offshore barriers deployed and monitored by the Mexican Navy.
For the seaweed that washed up on the shores, an almost army of workers from government agencies and local resorts were charged with manually removing the sargassum and disposing of it in local dump areas. There the sargassum can decompose without the sight and smell affecting travelers.
There was little commercial application of what to do with the sargassum and instead it was just dealt with as a waste product.
However, the tide may just be turning against sargassum in Cozumel. No pun intended, of course.
Seaweed Reefs
Cozumel is working to find some innovative uses for sargassum instead of just dumping it in waste areas to slowly break down. Officials believe they may have a creative way to send the macroalgae right back to the sea.
According to Riviera Maya News, Cozumel is currently testing using sargassum to create new artificial offshore reefs for divers enjoying the coastal waters on vacation.
Riviera Maya Hotel Association President Toni Chaves said the invasive macroalgae is being used to make “lego” type reef pieces which are then assembled offshore to create the reefs for divers.
“It is like creating an artificial reef but with sargassum, not with cement or rods, which have a negative impact on the sea,” he told the local news outlet. “We have already done a pilot plan with it and corals and marine life have regenerated, so it is viable.”
How The Project Works
The reefs are built from a material which is a combination of dried sargassum and clay. It is 3D printed in a modular dome and then assembled in the sea. The sargassum extract conveniently eliminates the need for manual maintenance.
“It has already withstood the storms and hurricanes of the last few weeks which we are happy with,” Chaves added.
The idea behind the project came from Autonomous University of Nuevo León Professor Dr. Shadai Lugo Loredo who proposed the idea a year ago and was honored with an honorable mention award in a research competition.
The pilot project to try to find some commercial or environmental use for sargassum beyond simply disposing of it was funded by the large bank BBVA and the Riviera Maya Hotel Association.
Making Progress Against Sargassum
However, it is just a start in the process for the hotels, local governments, tourism associations and universities to try to find a way to use the natural resource from the sea which is currently just seen as an invader.
A delegation from the European Union and financial backers were in Cozumel a few months ago to check on the progress and learn best practices about how to address the worldwide sargassum issue.
“Tech de Monterrey, UNAM, scientists, businessmen, hoteliers were there,” Chaves told Riviera Maya News. “Also, countries like Jamaica, Cuba, Panama and the Dominican Republic came since we are the country that has made the most progress on the issue.”