Hi, we are returning to Desire in June after a 3 year hiatus due to COVID. We read an article here in Los Angeles about an algae issue with the beaches in Cancun, specifically the Riviera Maya. Has anyone recently been there any has seen ( or in this case, smelled) any Sargassum algae issues? We read that this algae releases odors similar to methane gas. Any update or suggestions would be helpful. Thanks
Sargassum Monitoring – Official Maps & News is a monitoring site. Sargassum can be found most places in the Caribbean Sea. Severity depends on currents/winds/etc. A month out would be a pretty hard forecast. Some dates will be better than others, kind of just have to roll the dice (like the weather). DRM now has baffles about 50 yards off the shore to keep the floating mats of sargassum and waves from hitting the beach. I don’t know how effective the baffles were/are. We were at DRM about 45 days ago and only a little sargassum was there, hardly noticeable. In 2015 we were a little farther south of DRM for a really bad infestation of sargassum. Never noticed any smell, or at least don’t recall the odor being a nuisance.
This is from the monitoring website. From April 6th, 2022. It's the Breathless beach looking north towards DRM (right next door).
We were just there late March. They have a floating barrier about 20 yd off shore that seemed to keep the beach pretty clean.
You can look at these two webcam down the beach in Puerto Morelos. Puerto Morelos Webcam at Casa Toucan
We go to Mexico every year, and it seems to have become the norm to have those enormous piles of seaweed on their beaches. Invariably, they always say that there has been a large storm out in the ocean that had washed up a great deal of it, but you can only use that excuse so many times.... Seems to us that this is long term and to be expected along the Riviera Maya, but not sure why. It is unfortunate, but it's pretty much always present now.
