There have been complaints about beaches from across the region and other parts of the world about sargassum. Experts have been unable to explain why there has been a significant increase in the volume of sargassum on beaches and why it is taking longer to clear up than in previous years. While Jamaica is not as badly hit as other countries, Hellshire is said to be the worst affected beach in the country.

New sargassum threats emerging

3 May 2023/Christopher Serju/Senior Gleaner Writer 

FIELD WORK conducted in the development of an early advisory system to forecast the frequency, volume, and places where sargassum is likely to be deposited on Jamaican beaches has thrown up new and emerging issues, some of which are yet to be fully analysed by local scientists.

“Get used to it. Sargassum is here to stay, and it’s likely to get worse …” was the blunt response from Technical Project Coordinator Darren Fletcher during a Gleaner interview at the Mona Geoinformatics Institute at the University of the West Indies, Mona, last week.

Fletcher, along with Biogeography Research Associate, Romario Anderson, are part of the team investigating sargassum beaching, and this has seen them travelling to Barbados and Ghana in West Africa.

Anderson explained that this is because the peak season to which they had become accustomed, between April and August, with the most severe months being May to June, has now become erratic.

“By October, we used to see sargassum beaching completely gone, but now, even in December, it is still there. So the sargassum season is like a year-round thing, and it is very difficult to combat,” he said.

HEALTH SCARE

In addition to the unsightliness of the piles of brown seaweed strewn along bathing beaches, which has shuttered hotel operations in Mexico and Barbados, the rotting sargassum, which emits a smell said to be akin to spoilt eggs, is throwing up another health scare.

“So persons living along the coastline usually have a problem with the visual aesthetics of it in terms of the beach value and the inconvenience because they can’t go to swim or sunbathe. Now we have some people complaining of respiratory illnesses, especially if they have a history of sinus, asthma, or some other pre-existing respiratory conditions,” Anderson pointed out.

He continued: “Hellshire Beach, anywhere along Hellshire, that entire community is under threat. What we have seen as well in recent years is the sargassum piles when they are removed get washed away or decay the sand in the immediate area. So we are actually seeing that as a new threat from sargassum, that there is some kind of shoreline erosion taking place,” Anderson disclosed.

According to the Biogeography Research Associate, scientists in Barbados have noticed this as well but have not yet been able to determine the cause.

Other beaches affected are Salt River, Clarendon; Manchioneal, Kensington, and Long Bay in Portland; Priory in St Ann; Robins Bay in St Mary; Little Bay in Negril; and Port Royal.

Another problem picked up was that a lot of solid waste usually gets trapped in the bands of sargassum and are deposited onshore.

“When the sargassum decays, the solid waste gets left behind. So there is a line of solid waste left behind, so you can see the line of decomposing sargassum and the line of garbage,” he added.

“Hellshire is the worst affected in terms of the frequency of sargassum beaching, in terms of severity, in terms of volume as well because in the severe months on a 100-metre stretch of coastline, we can see 100 to 150 metres cubed of sargassum on that single hundredmetre stretch. So in terms of height, we have seen from a metre to three metres, so the sargassum then is, basically, taller than us.”

Despite this, though, scientists involved in the study believe that Jamaica has been fortunate to date since most of the sargassum beaching has been happening along the eastern and southern coasts while most of the island’s hotels are located along the northern and western sections.

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