Specialists urge an environmental emergency as record sargassum in Tulum overwhelms cleanup crews

Specialists and local authorities warn that sargassum in Tulum has surpassed the region's response capacity, urging state and federal officials to declare an environmental contingency that would unlock extraordinary funds for cleanup.

The warning lands as Quintana Roo runs through another season with more than 70 percent of its economy tied to tourism. A coastline buried under decomposing algae is not only an environmental burden. It is a direct threat to the workers, vendors, and small operators who depend on visitors choosing these beaches over competing destinations.

A historic season that outpaces every brigade on the coast

Iván Penié, general manager of Ecoprotección Akumal AC and research coordinator at Oceanus International, said the volume of algae reaching the region this year has climbed to historic levels, surpassing even the record landings of the previous year, which had been the highest on record until now.

According to Penié, the scale of the arrivals now exceeds what any single force can manage. He estimated the seasonal landings across the state at millions of tons, a figure he said overwhelms the combined collection capacity of the Navy, state and municipal brigades, and private crews working the shoreline.

"These quantities far exceed the collection and handling capacities of both the Navy and state, municipal, and private brigades," Penié said.

He added that the containment tools in use have been known to fall short for years. Scientific research and proposed technologies exist, he said, but most have never been deployed because the funding to apply them never arrived.

The case for an environmental contingency declaration

Penié argued that the evidence already justifies a formal contingency declaration, a step that would let authorities tap extraordinary resources rather than rely on the routine budgets that have proven too small for the problem. The volume reaching the coast, he said, is practically impossible to process with the technology available today.

Years of research without the funding to apply it

The knowledge gap, in his account, is not where the failure sits. Penié pointed to more than 600 scientific articles and roughly 30,000 theses produced in Mexico on sargassum, evidence that the country understands the phenomenon in detail. What has been missing, he said, is the investment and political will to convert that research into working technology on the beaches.

What sargassum in Tulum could cost the tourism economy

The economic stakes anchor Penié's warning. In a state where tourism drives the overwhelming share of activity, he said a damaged perception of the beaches could trigger cancellations. The people most exposed, he added, are local workers rather than the large hotel investors who can absorb a weak season and wait out the algae.

Zofemat reports record removals as beaches refill within hours

David Buchanan García, head of the Federal Maritime Land Zone (Zofemat) in Tulum, acknowledged the difficulty and said cleanup has not stopped, even as the algae repeatedly outpace the crews assigned to remove it.

"It is something we see every day, we cannot hide it," Buchanan said.

He reported that municipal brigades have intensified collection and that more than 2,658 tons of sargassum have been removed so far this year, double the figure recorded over the same period a year earlier. Crews have also completed more than 1,000 trips hauling material to disposal sites, supported by state machinery that includes sweepers and specialized units.

The relief is short-lived. Buchanan said the beaches are covered over again within hours, which forces crews to restart the same work on a loop and erases much of the ground they gain in a single shift.

Where does the collected sargassum go

Buchanan said the municipality has confinement cells and drying areas available for final disposal of the material. Even with that capacity in place, he acknowledged, the saturation keeps removal operations running without pause across the coastal zone, leaving little margin to get ahead of the next arrival.

For now, no contingency or emergency declaration has been issued, and the decision rests with the state and federal authorities who would have to authorize the extraordinary funding that Penié and others are requesting. Whether that step arrives before the season peaks, or only after the beaches have already cost the region a wave of cancellations, is the question hanging over the coast.

Should Quintana Roo declare a formal environmental emergency to confront the sargassum crisis, or is the current cleanup response enough? Join the conversation and share your perspective with us on Instagram and Facebook at @thetulumtimes.