Riviera Maya battles an earlier-than-expected sargassum season
March is here, and with it the typical start to sargassum season, when the noxious seaweed begins washing up on Mexico’s Caribbean coastline, darkening the sea, fouling the sand and chasing away the tourists. This year could be worse than ever. Local authorities are hoping to avoid the kind of sargassum invasions that turned Playa del Carmen into a slippery field of seaweed in previous years. (Elizabeth Ruiz/Cuartoscuro) For one thing, the season started earlier than usual, with the slimy invader first washing up on Isla Mujeres in the second week of January. According to industry publication Reportur, 244 tonnes of sargassum were collected from Tulum in February, up from 59 in 2025. It has since accumulated in many other beaches along the Quintana Roo coastline, particularly near Playa del Carmen. “This year is going to be terrible,” said Rosa Rodríguez, a researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s Institute of Limnology and Marine Sciences in Puerto...