Sargasso Sea Weed

[D2H2]

I just read an article that indicates that the beaches in Playa are a mess due to Sargasso seaweed, and that many of the islands in the Caribbean are clogged as well. Tobago is allocating $3M for cleanup and the following was stated regarding Mexico. “On July 30, Mexico’s Environment Department announced that the country would hire 4,600 temporary workers and spend about $9.1 million on cleanup efforts along the Caribbean coast, also known as the Riviera Maya. Cancun reported that it had removed nearly 100 tons of seaweed to date.” “In living memory we’ve never seen it this bad,” David Freestone, executive director of the Sargasso Sea Commission, told Yahoo Travel. “The worry is that this will be the new normal.”

We have a scuba trip scheduled for October and are concerned that Cozumel is getting hit as well. I'm hoping the situation is that most of the seaweed is coming from the East and thus the West side of Cozumel is pretty well protected, but again, that’s just hoping. We would appreciate any info you can provide, or a pointer to another post if this has already been discussed. Thank you.

 

[ggunn]

I just read an article that indicates that the beaches in Playa are a mess due to Sargasso seaweed, and that many of the islands in the Caribbean are clogged as well. Tobago is allocating $3M for cleanup and the following was stated regarding Mexico. “On July 30, Mexico’s Environment Department announced that the country would hire 4,600 temporary workers and spend about $9.1 million on cleanup efforts along the Caribbean coast, also known as the Riviera Maya. Cancun reported that it had removed nearly 100 tons of seaweed to date.” “In living memory we’ve never seen it this bad,” David Freestone, executive director of the Sargasso Sea Commission, told Yahoo Travel. “The worry is that this will be the new normal.”

We have a scuba trip scheduled for October and are concerned that Cozumel is getting hit as well. I'm hoping the situation is that most of the seaweed is coming from the East and thus the West side of Cozumel is pretty well protected, but again, that’s just hoping. We would appreciate any info you can provide, or a pointer to another post if this has already been discussed. Thank you.

When I was there in May the seaweed was the worst I have ever seen out in the channel in the 30+ years I have been going to Cozumel. When we were out fishing we were constantly having to reel in and clear our lines of the stuff.

The diving, however, was totally unaffected. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[gopbroek]

When I was there in May the seaweed was the worst I have ever seen out in the channel in the 30+ years I have been going to Cozumel. When we were out fishing we were constantly having to reel in and clear our lines of the stuff.

The diving, however, was totally unaffected. I wouldn't worry about it.

I agree this spring it was heavy on the shoreline and surface, flying in you could see large patches from the air. It had a negligible effect on diving. Early July and last week I really did not see much in fact during a dive my mask started to fog and I went shallow looking for some to scrub my lens and couldn't find any suspended in the water.

 

[Dave Dillehay]

Dear Gordon,

There is a ton (maybe many tons) of Sargassum and it is coating the east side of Cozumel so much that the turtles can't lay eggs. That is a tragedy. But for the most part, the build up is on the east side of Cozumel and on the mainland where it is awful. But it stays on those coasts because the prevailing winds are from the east.

I well remember your pain (mine too) when in May we had 1 1/2 weeks of an odd west wind which blew that junk up on our west side. Stunk like hell and kept the cruise ship people out of downtown. But that has not been repeated and the dive sites and our west side beaches remain clear. Last Sunday I went to the Mainland and saw the beaches 6 feet deep in the crud. No one in the water! The same is true now of our East Side which is ugly and smelly, with no one in the water.

The bottom line is that our traditional west side diving is not affected at all now. But given a rare wind shift from the normal trade winds it could be a problem, but that would be very rare.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

PS I would advise anyone with Riviera Maya beach reservations to reconsider.

 

[ggunn]

Dear Gordon,

There is a ton (maybe many tons) of Sargassum and it is coating the east side of Cozumel so much that the turtles can't lay eggs. That is a tragedy. But for the most part, the build up is on the east side of Cozumel and on the mainland where it is awful. But it stays on those coasts because the prevailing winds are from the east.

I well remember your pain (mine too) when in May we had 1 1/2 weeks of an odd west wind which blew that junk up on our west side. Stunk like hell and kept the cruise ship people out of downtown. But that has not been repeated and the dive sites and our west side beaches remain clear. Last Sunday I went to the Mainland and saw the beaches 6 feet deep in the crud. No one in the water! The same is true now of our East Side which is ugly and smelly, with no one in the water.

The bottom line is that our traditional west side diving is not affected at all now. But given a rare wind shift from the normal trade winds it could be a problem, but that would be very rare.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

PS I would advise anyone with Riviera Maya beach reservations to reconsider.

When I got there in May most of it had been removed from the west side. We had a planned excursion to the east side, but a death in the family caused us to cut the trip short so we didn't get over there. The channel had big floating sheets of sargassum which messed with our fishing but there was no effect on the diving.

 

[D2H2]

Thanks for the replies. To Dave’s point, looks like we will be ok unless we get a west wind. I have seen a number of Nortes blow out of the northwest for a good portion of the storm. Hope we don’t get an early one in October!

BTW, has anyone ever dove under heavy seaweed? I'm guessing that there would be a lot of sea creatures there. Might be kind of cool to try!

 

[Dave Dillehay]

Dear D@H2,Your right, lots of small fish hide under the sargassum and of course bigger ones go there to feed. When there are small patches that concentrates the small fish, that is where the fishermen head to but-- the big gobs just foul your fishing lines. But we are talking about multi acre size globs in places. This has been going on since early spring and have mostly been lucky with minimal west winds.Dave DillehayAldora DiversPS The really sad thing is that we have been seeing lots of turtle eggs down on the reef. They have to lay them someplace.

 

[cruiser]

Earlier this year I was shore diving and there was lots of seaweed. But it was all floating, making a canopy in the water, and didn't interfere with diving at all.

 

[cvchief]

BTW, has anyone ever dove under heavy seaweed? I'm guessing that there would be a lot of sea creatures there. Might be kind of cool to try!

Dear D@H2,Your right, lots of small fish hide under the sargassum and of course bigger ones go there to feed. When there are small patches that concentrates the small fish, that is where the fishermen head to but-- the big gobs just foul your fishing lines. But we are talking about multi acre size globs in places. This has been going on since early spring and have mostly been lucky with minimal west winds.Dave DillehayAldora DiversPS The really sad thing is that we have been seeing lots of turtle eggs down on the reef. They have to lay them someplace.

When we flew Mayair over to CUN Sunday, the fishing boats in Playa were fishing up again big patches of sargassum.

 

[cvchief]

Someone picked the wrong place to SS and hit the surface today, re: sargassum: