Aside from the stench, scraping sargassum seaweed off the resort-studded beaches has become not only a nightmare, but possibly a health threat, for the workers doing it.
Near-record amounts of seaweed are smothering Caribbean coasts from Puerto Rico to Barbados, killing fish and other wildlife, choking tourism and releasing stinky, noxious gases. TULUM, Mexico — Scraping the smelly sargassum seaweed off some beaches on Mexico's resort-studded Caribbean coast has become not only a nightmare, but possibly a health threat, for the workers doing it — with the quantities washing ashore this year seemingly mountains not mounds.
But workers like Martínez and Valle are exposing themselves to more than just the burning sun, says Rosa Rodríguez Martínez, a biologist in the beachside town of Puerto Morelos who studies reefs and coastal ecosystems for Mexico's National Autonomous University. A 2019 article in the Journal of Travel Medicine includes the disturbing warning,"More chronic exposure to these gasses can lead to conjunctival and neurocognitive symptoms such as memory loss and impaired balance, as well as non-specific symptoms such as headache, nausea and fatigue."
"The property is beautiful, but we were automatically struck ... by the smell," Callaway said."The smell is really pungent and very strong. And then, yeah, we were disappointed with how much seaweed sargasso there is here." International tourism to the country as a whole surpassed pre-pandemic levels in the first half of 2022, with 10.26 million visitors from January to June, 1.5% higher than the 10.11 million tourists who arrived in Mexico in the first half of 2019.
The jury is still out on the floating booms, meant to trap sargassum mats at sea before they reach the beach.
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