Barbados is a small Caribbean island with a population of about 300,000. However, it’s been tasked with a monumental problem to try to tackle.
With tourism a main driver of the nation’s economy, the island nation has struggled with an influx of Sargassum, a brown macroalgae, which washes up on the Barbados coastline. Within days it turns into a smelly rotting weed which turns off tourists.
While many people in Barbados are hired to remove the seaweed, the small country is struggling to keep its beaches clean and pristine for travelers.
Keeping Barbados Sargassum Free
While Barbados is at an envious spot in the Caribbean Sea for travelers, it is in the most vulnerable spot for Sargassum invasions as it is the first point of land contact for the beach blooms transiting from the Atlantic Ocean.
Its vulnerability is not limited to its long triangle shaped coastline, but also a fact that a quarter to a third of the nation’s economy is directly linked to beach tourism.
Every morning, a brigade of workers descends on the beaches of Barbados armed with equipment to clean the beaches for the early bird tourists. They meticulously groom the sand with sand tools and tractors only to know that the beach will be filled with Sargassum again in the morning.
The constant cleaning ritual in the name of international tourism costs the small island of 300,000 people anywhere from $100,000 to $1 million per kilometer of beach per year.
“Hurricanes and sargassum have become concurrent hazards,” said Barbados and Eastern Caribbean Prevention, Recovery and Resilience Program Manager for the United Nations Development Program Karima Degia in a story on the topic.
Finding Solutions For Sargassum
With all of the Sargassum arriving on the shores of Barbados, creativity is needed to deal with the smelly brown seaweed.
One British firm is working a company in Barbados to use sargassum as a raw material for bioplastics, fuels and fertilizer, and is planning to collect sargassum offshore, freeing the bay from algae and making it suitable for fish-farm development.
Another innovator called Rum & Sargassum, is mixing sargassum and wastewater from rum distilleries in Barbados to produce methane gas.
Despite the creative entrepreneurs in Barbados finding a solution to the mounting piles of Sargassum, both companies admitted in a published article that thousands of dump truck sized loads of Sargassum would have to be used on peak days just to keep up.
Unfortunately, they are not at that point in the production process and so the rotting and smelly weed continues to build.
The Battle Rages On
So, the battle rages on between the livelihood of the people of Barbados and the noxious wave after wave of seaweed washing up on the shores.
While Barbados has been able to keep up maintaining the beaches sufficiently for tourist pleasure, the island nation and industry are trying to find better ways to control the issue and not drain the checkbook.
While global warming is apparently making the issue worse, Barbados is turning to the World Bank for assistance and funding to help defend the country against the invader.
Unfortunately, the country is on the active front of the battle in a global warming war the citizens of the small country did not start. Truly nobody will be the winner of this challenging battle.
What Tourists Need to Know
Hotel and resort owners in Barbados ask tourists to be patient with them as they try to do their best to keep the beaches clean for the very valued guests.
However, there has been talk of a visitor’s fee or surcharge to help with the cleanup. While they don’t think it will be enough to deter visits to Barbados, they are currently actively exploring the option.
What do you think about this new fee idea in exchange for clean beaches in Barbados?