Cancun, QR. The leader of the Business Coordinating Council of the Riviera Maya, Lenin Amaro Betancourt, announced that the General Council for the Comprehensive Management of Sargassum is analyzing the acquisition of hot air balloons for permanent and real-time monitoring of patches of this algae. in high sea.
Such balloons would provide not only more extended monitoring of the approaching sargasso to the coast of Quintana Roo, but more precise locations of it, unlike the electronic drones that had been used in this work.
Monitoring through balloons would allow changing the reactive approach to combat this problem for more preventive actions, that is, to avoid as much as possible the landing of algae on the beaches, which is what generates the greatest damage both environmental and economic, especially to the tourist areas of the state, explained the businessman.
It is also planned that only in Playa del Carmen a total of 2,500 linear meters of sargassum barrierswhich would exceed in coverage the 1,700 meters of window to the sea that the city has.
In addition, two sargaceras will be deployed for this area, the dock on Avenida Constituyentes will be used for unloading the sargassum collected on the high seas, for which a ramp will be built.
Strategy in Cancun
In Cancun, so far this year, 175 tons of sargassum have already been collected, and in 2021 a total of 9,800 were reported. Given this, the city council of Benito Juárez is getting ready for the 2022 sargassum season, with the deployment of equipment and labor for the removal of algae from the beaches.
All of the organic matter collected is collected in Calopark (road to Puerto Morelos), where the Dianco company has a geomembrane for storing the algae, which is later used to generate biofuel, among other industrialization processes.
Wagner Elbiorn Vega, director of the Federal Maritime Terrestrial Zone (Zofemat), explained that they have a total of 180 brigade members to keep the seven public beaches in charge of the city council free of sargassum, which are El Niño, Las Perlas, Chacmol, Marlin, Ballenas. , Dolphins and Coral.
The brigadistas work in two shifts that are from 07:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., and from 1:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. from Monday to Sunday, which have seven tractors with Barret sweepers, authorized for their work. for the removal of sargassum by the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat), as well as seven manual and mechanical sifters, as well as rakes and wheelbarrows for the removal of algae.
The official explained that for now it is expected that the Navy’s sargassum boats will be located in the Nizuc area, given the strong waves that occur in other open sea areas in front of Cancun.
