It seems crazy (to me) that Sargassum would be a reason to cancel a trip down there, or even be upset by it, considering the other awesome things to do besides swim at the beach.

It's getting to the point that the only "safe" window to visit Cancun/Tulum is around Thanksgiving through MLK. We were there President's Day a year ago and the beaches were already bad.

Exactly - we had sargassum in JANUARY this year. Thats UNHEARD OF.

That's when we knew it was gonna be a bad bad bad year.

I have a 48 room wedding in Costa Mujeres in June.

I've not had any clients canceled, but I do warn them ahead of time. I just had clients get back from Secrets Maroma and while the seaweed was bad, she said the smell wasn't and they did a great job of cleaning it up.

The problem isn't that it isn't cleanable now. The problem is the flow is supposed to be 2-3x higher than it is now in May - August without a hurricane or TS or depression to clear the corridor. That volume isn't cleanable. they're predicting something like 20-30+ tons of accumulation A DAY across the state. At those numbers, They eventually give up and just cover it with sand they truck in which covers the smell but also creates a 12 - 24 inch layer of rotten sargassum under the sand. We went through it last year whereas Cancun and Isla MOSTLY missed it. When we go to the beach and the kids build a sand castle, they can only dig about a foot into the breach before they hit that layer and its GROSS.

If you look at there Sargassum monitoring SAT page, you'll see the blobs are now starting too actually push over the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula and making its way onto the beaches of Cuyo etc. That's NEVER happened before even in the previous WORST year and the pipeline is just getting started. Traditionally the lower part of QR would be covered but the geography would keep CM and Isla clean. With the volume pushing in now, that's no longer the case. Cuyo recorded their first ever sargassum accumulation in FEBRUARY of this year. They usually don't see ANY year round,

The use of Sargassum barriers are few and far between and their effectiveness isn't great. Something like 8 miles of the 100+ miles of beaches are protected by barriers and those only work when the waves don't cap over them. When they do, they push the sargassum into the zone and its unable to flow back out when the current change making it guaranteed to reach the beach at some point.

The Mexican Navy have a couple of ships to collect sargassum but on any single day there's usually at most one operational (Mexico going full blown Mexico).

Last year they released a study that somewhere between 30-40% of sargassum funds end up unaccounted for...

Really depressing and it's changing not just the ambiance but also the overall ecosystem.

Hoping things are clean for you not just as a business but also because if this season is as bad or worse than last season the local economies are going to be WRECKED. We need 70% plus occupancy to make things work and last year because of the environmental and aesthetic impact were less than 25% on the beach and 12% in town.

The only operations that survive those numbers are the fronts for money laundering.

Marriott just closed Aloft in Tulum and there are a lot of rumblings that well established places like Azulik etc are basically walking the bankruptcy tight rope right now. We have friends that operate their spa and she said in a normal month she would usually make 25-30k pesos which is a ton for Mexico. This high season she didn't have a month that was even near those numbers and her March total thus far is less than 10k pesos. She said they have a couple of months of runway and after that isn't game over as they've already reduced hours across the work force and laid off about 30% of the full time staff before cutting hours.

We know ALOT of Mexican nationals that have given up and moved back home because they can't make the required income to stay.

Its really sad.

Thread needs resort beach pics

What They Still show You online…..

That's NOT What It looks like Now so Please do Your due Diligance and Don't get scammed.

This is why we almost exclusively go to costa Mujeres now. Two trips planned this summer already.

Hopefully they are ok.

They actually got clobbered yesterday. No where is safe now. Not even cuyo. Crazy.

Yeah, I don't get in the ocean anyways. I just look at it from the pools with a drink in hand.

We went a few years back and it was so bad we didn't go to the beach a single time... didn't really hurt the trip though

Sargassum is a sign of a healthy oceanic ecosystem. It provides cover for juvenile fish, crabs and shrimp and is natures way of spreading genetic diversity across a broad area for species of the basin. It also replenishes the beaches when it washes up, and by doing so helps to them build and prevent erosion.

I love getting my snorkel and mask out and swimming under the Sargassum and looking at the fish swimming under it. I've seen baby seahorses, Sargent Majors, baby Parrotfish, and tiny crabs and shrimp that I cannot identify, in Sargassum in the breakers at Mustang Island.

Raking it off the beaches is actually detrimental to the environment.

I know many of y'all don't want to hear that.

Scruffy said:

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Well.....
I realize in your heyday nature may have been allowed to do it's thing, but i prefer my recreational areas be groomed and well kept with no fishy smells.

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The day the Travel Board decided to dip into the deep end of the pool.

I just spit out my afternoon coffee.

Scruffy said:

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Well.....
I realize in your heyday nature may have been allowed to do it's thing, but i prefer my recreational areas be groomed and well kept with no fishy smells.

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User name...doesn't check out.

And I can smell that sargassum through my computer.

Bayou City said:

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this dude looks like an older version of you

Scruffy said:

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Well.....
I realize in your heyday nature may have been allowed to do it's thing, but i prefer my recreational areas be groomed and well kept with no fishy smells.

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Ha! Y'all make me laugh. It's just a little seaweed. I guess because I live on the coast it's no big deal. And I can see where someone who doesn't understand what it is gets to their resort, and is like, "WTF is this???!"

Anyway. Love the responses. Y'all are too cool!

He's AMAZING. Probs some of the best vibes in Tulum. Nothing phases the guy. Makes the best out of everything and just goes with the flow. The eptome of dejarse llevar.

In the open ocean yes. As unControlled algea blooms…Not so much.

The reason they arent a sign of a healthy eco system is because they're produced from overly nitrogen rich runoff off Africa and Brasil.

In doeses they provide cover food etc for marine life.

As an algea bloom at these levels they actually deplete the oxygen and make it impossible for Fish to live.

Hence the 1000s of dead fish you'll find in it if you really want to look through the sulfur dioxide releasing rotten *****

Oceans are getting warmer. Thats a fact. global warming be ****ed you can Measure the temperature of the ocean and it's Rising.

That's Not really up for debate.

Clinate change - doesn't exist but the oceans can Still be getting warmer and they are.

Bayou City said:

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Crazy to cancel a beach vacation because You can't go to the beach because of meter high rotten egg smelling rancid sargassum that you can smell 4 blocks off the beach that's a Health hazard and makes the water look like chocolate milk.

Totally agree.

You must love cenotes

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I do love cenotes

Wife just got back from Cancun and confirm that 1) everything was "safe" like normal and 2) Sargassum was starting to show up. Not at the levels shown in pictures above, but definitely coming in.