Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Page 2 of 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 84,397
Marty Offline OP
OP Offline

BTB to help BTIA solve sargassum problem

The Belize Tourist Board (BTB) and the government of Belize will work with tourism industry stakeholders to solve the problem of cleaning up sargassum off the beaches; as Cabinet has already been briefed on the situation. This was the good news BTB director Herbert Haylock communicated to members of the Belize Tourism Industry Association (BTIA) when the stakeholders met to seek practical solutions to the sargassum problem at a forum hosted by the BTIA at the Ramada Princess Hotel and Casino in Belize City last Thursday, December 3rd.

Haylock told the constituency that a joint task force from the Ministries of Tourism and Aviation, Forestry and Fisheries, and Natural Resources were presently considering a policy for the best way forward. He added that he could not offer a precise timetable for when government would produce its national policy on the issue, but he optimistically opined that it could be within a month, as Cabinet had been briefed on the issue from before the elections.

The president of the BTIA Placencia chapter, Stuart Krohn, made haste to assure Haylock that the BTIA was not looking for a hand-out; as each tourism property has been addressing the problem which occurred in August, each in their own way. But he requested that the BTIA would like the government to issue a national policy on how to deal with the problem that would apply across the board nationwide, on how the problem would be addressed. For while tourism property owners were busy cleaning their stretch of beach, no one was clearing away the sargassum from neighboring public land and beaches along properties where the owners were absent; so this remained a problem for those involved in trying to keep their beaches clean.

One suggestion put forward was that the sargassum phenomenon, when it occurs, should be treated as a national emergency to be addressed and dealt with by the National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO), which has the equipment and other resources to deal with the problem. No one is too clear on the scientific cause of the problem, but industry stakeholders anticipate that it is a problem that may recur; as there is a large mass of sargassum floating in the ocean off the coast of West Africa. Once the climatic conditions are right and the ocean currents are working in tandem, this sargassum will break away and float into the Caribbean; and once the sargassum reaches the Windward Islands in April, the BTIA stakeholders know it will be only a matter of months before the sargassum reaches our shores again.

The sargassum problem is not unique to Belize; and Chief Executive Officer Hugh Riley from the Caribbean Tourism Organization shared the experience of how the tourism industry has been addressing the issue in other Caribbean territories.

Mexican biologist Nallely Hernandez Palacios, Deputy Director of the technical unit for Conservation and Management of Protected Natural Reserves of Yucatan and the Mexican Caribbean, shone a ray of sunshine on the gloom of the problem, by introducing a machine, the Sarganeitor, which Mexican authorities have been using with considerable success to clean up their sargassum problem. She explained that the machine was originally designed to clean up vegetation in inland waterways, but had proved quite effective when adapted to address the sargassum phenomena. Essentially, the Sarganeitor is like a floating combine which goes harvesting the sargassum from the sea at a rate of 7.5 tons per day, and depositing it aboard a boat. It's a very practical solution for cleaning up the sargasum from the seas, before it hits the beaches; but at 2 Million pesos (about $300,000) it does not come cheap. In the Belize context, it is debatable whether the BTB or the BTIA should invest in such equipment, for a problem which may or may not occur.

Hernandez-Palacios said the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas had spent some $159,000 in cleaning up about 10,000 tons of sargassum along a 5.4 kilometer stretch of coastline in the Isla Mujeres Punta Cancun national park area. Elsewhere, other Mexican stakeholders had cleaned up 149,000 tons of sargassum at a cost of US$225,000 along 74.8 km of coastline.

Of course, once the sargassum is harvested; the next question was what to do with it. One solution was to bury it under the dunes above the high-water mark, but Mexican authorities found that using heavy equipment to push the beached sargassum up the beach to the disposal area had a negative ecological impact in that heavy earth-moving equipment also crushed the eggs in sea-turtle nests buried beneath the sand. So they recommended using lighter vehicles, with flotation tires to minimize the ecological impact; one such vehicle was a sort of beach rake with tines to comb the sargassum off the beach without removing too much sand. Another was for the turtle nesting areas to be cleaned by hand, although this had a higher man-power cost. Other uses aside from landfill was to use it as fertilizer because of its potassium and phosphates content, or alternatively as a compost on pig farms.

Oceana Belize representative Roxanne Perez-Gentle shared the Belize experience, and the most clean-up campaigns in the affected areas had been a community led response, done mostly by hand, using volunteer labor for the most part; and the sargassum collected had been buried in ditches dug behind the beach area. She noted that it was a problem which demanded a solution; as the sargassum had worked as a floating broom, sweeping in all other flotsam and plastic debris of the ocean and depositing it all on the beach in a most unsightly manner. She said they found the sargassum had also trapped a number of marine organisms, such as small fish, turtles and crabs, which all contributed to a most unpleasant smell when the sargassum began to decay.

Amber Edwards of San Pedro's "Build-a-Beach" campaign shared the Isla Bonita experience, in which tourism property owners had recruited mostly volunteers to clean up the beaches by hand. The volunteers also devised a unique method of using a sort of seine net to harvest the floating sargassum out of the water.

Other stakeholders from Placencia, Seine Bight and Hopkins also described how each had dealt with the problem; some properties solved the problem by mounting booms, nets and breakwaters offshore to keep the sargassum off their beaches; but where these deflection barriers were installed, they only magnified the problem for other neighboring properties. One such barrier, called the "Beach Bouncer", is commercially marketed for this purpose, and at $6,000 for a 100-foot section; some might find it an affordable solution. Not everyone welcomed this answer, as the sargassum when deflected simply floats down-wind; as the currents carry it further along the coast to become somebody else's problem. To protect a beach effectively, the barrier needs to extend along the entire length of beach, but it has to be staggered in sections which overlap at gaps which allow fishing boats and other crafts to access the open sea.

San Pedro Sun


Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 84,397
Marty Offline OP
OP Offline

CARICOM On Sargassum Scourge



Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 84,397
Marty Offline OP
OP Offline
UK billionaire discusses sargassum solutions with OECS ministers

Officials from the British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Dominica, and Antigua and Barbuda, along with leading scientists and experts from around the world, joined British billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist Sir Richard Branson this week in the BVI to discuss the ongoing issue of sargassum seaweed, which is affecting the Caribbean and the very important tourism industry.

It is a high stakes event involving the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), with expectations of immediate solutions to stem the problem to include making a business from sargassum.

Branson is working with the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) to develop a regional strategy to be implemented locally by member states. The OECS is acting as the technical moderator for the conference along with BVI technicians and Branson's own team of environmentalists.

"Sargussum seaweed is a threat to tourism, the livelihood of fishers and the marine environment," Montserrat's minister of trade and environment Claude Hogan noted. "Finding a strategy which we can action locally is the dominant theme of the conference."

The environment ministers of Montserrat, BVI, Anguilla and Antigua have been asked to champion the project to work with Branson and his Virgin Unite charity to find solutions to the problem.

Hogan said they have identified some of the main issues but no single solution has yet been formulated.

"One of the bullets is public education and information on Sargassum," he said.

There's also the use of Sargassum as an animal feed.

Branson has also shared that energy must be given to conserving seafood and managing the catches of lobster in particular. According to Hogan, the investor is willing to pay for his methods to be implemented and he has already agreed a marine project for Montserrat.

The billionaire, who owns Moskito Island, along with nearby Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands, has more than 400 companies under his Virgin brand. Many of these companies, including Virgin and Virgin Holidays, are in the travel industry. Moskito Island is part of the Virgin Limited Edition franchise, which features three villas and can house up to 22 guests for exclusive use according to the website.

Caribbean News Now

Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 84,397
Marty Offline OP
OP Offline

Considered the greatest single threat to the Caribbean, Sargassum is blamed for dead fish on Ambergris Caye

The influx of Sargassum seaweed has been accumulating along the coast of Ambergris Caye and nearby islands for the past several weeks. The thick accumulation of these sea plants on the coastline is apparently causing detrimental effects on certain fish species as residents have reported dead fish along the shores. The Hol Chan Marine Reserve was made aware of dead fish and considered that the excess of Sargassum in certain areas of the island might be the cause of their death.

According to Hol Chan's Manager Miguel Alamilla, last year they recorded a number of dead fish due to a large amount of Sargassum accumulating on the shores of the island. He also explained why fish near the shore end up dying. "Once Sargassum drifts to shore it dies and due to poor water circulation it begins to decompose," said Alamilla. "What happens next is that the microorganisms decomposing the algae on the seaweed consumes all the oxygen out of the surrounding water causing fish to die in the immediate area, such process is called eutrophication."

The local authorities have been working along the beach trying to remove as much Sargassum as they can. While, the different restaurants, hotels, and bars along the beach have also teamed up to try to clean the beach as it is affecting their businesses as well. The idea to use Sargassum for the landfill has been discouraged by some residents who have resorted to this method in the past. According to them, Sargassum continues to further decay once it is buried and this can result in the land on top of it to cave in.

Click here to read the rest of the article and see more photos in the San Pedro Sun


Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 84,397
Marty Offline OP
OP Offline
Every year around this time, our island is invaded by sargassum sea weed and there is little that can be done. The San Pedro Town Council, residents and resorts/hotels daily try to overcome this problem by collecting it into piles and later disposing of it. There are however some uses for this sargassum: it can be used as landfill, with time it turns into sand, and can be used as a natural fertilizer! Here is a graphic to help spread awareness with our friends and visitors. Check it out!

[Linked Image]

Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 84,397
Marty Offline OP
OP Offline
Caye Caulker Village Council Notice on Sargassum

At this moment, our island is invaded by sargassum sea weed and there is little that can be done by our CCVC workers. The Caye Caulker Village Council, is asking all residents, hotels and business owners to assist the CCVC to overcome this problem by collecting it into piles on a section of the beach area which will later be picked up tomorrow and monday to be disposed of by the CCVC workers. The sargassum will be taken to the Sports Complex Area in Bahia to be used as landfill for our project. There are however some other uses for this sargassum: it can be used as landfill, with time it turns into a material that can be used as a natural fertilizer!

Thank you in advance for your cooperation!

============================

PG tackles Gulf Weed problem

Sargassum or Golf Weed is becoming more and more a problem in coastal communities. Every year around this time, tons and tons of the seaweed wash up on shore and communities have to contend with either leaving it where it lands or clearing it. For Punta Gorda, the decision was simple, it had to be cleared up to avoid the stench and the possible health hazard that it poses.

With that, Punta Gorda Mayor, Ashton Mckenzie gathered a group made up of a number of volunteers. On his Facebook page Mayor Mckenzie posted this: "where hands are many, burden is light. Beach Clean Up. It is indeed a pleasure to be engaged in such an initiative. Big respect to our partners Department of Youth Services. Community Policing Unit. BoneVille Community Church. Oceana. Residents of Punta Gorda Town."


Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 84,397
Marty Offline OP
OP Offline

Grand Colony builds a beach by burying sargasso and using the sand to extend the beach area all the way into properties of the upcoming Alaia Boutique Resort and Banyan Bay Suites

Resorts Are Building Beaches With Sargasso

Setting the example in 2015, Dimas Guerrero took upon himself to build a beach with the sargasso that was accumulating on shore. Today, various resorts are mimicking Guerrero's technique and applying it to their properties. It's a very time-consuming and tasking process but one that produces great results - MORE BEACH!!

Take a look at the beach properties of Grand Colony Island Villas and Mata Rocks that are making strides in cleaning and building their beach after much erosion and now, sargasso accumulation. Grand Colony is digging large holes on the beach and filling them up with sargasso, using the excess sand to extend the beach area. Mata Rocks on the other hand is spreading the sargasso and covering it with sand; both techniques proving to be successful. These are just a couple properties that we have noticed lately showing gains over the sargasso problem. Most beach property owners and the Town Council are using the sargasso as landfill and even composting; putting it to good use.

Click here to read the rest of the article and see more photos in the Ambergris Today


Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 84,397
Marty Offline OP
OP Offline

Massive quantities of pelagic sargassum have come ashore in the Caribbean, impacting shorelines and beaches, waterways, fisheries and tourism. Coastal areas in Belize are no exception. The Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute (GCFI) has created a poster with guide lines on how to manage sargassum on the beach.




We have to laugh at the positive attitude Lisa and Ronnie Cyrier took when they saw a new batch of sargassum rolling onto shore. "New game in San Pedro: Where's Ronnie???" They asked. LOL! Leave it up to this fun couple to make light of a stressful situation.


Ambergris Today

Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 84,397
Marty Offline OP
OP Offline

Belize is no exception to this natural phenomenon. A great article to read to understand a bit more about this prevalent occurrence taking place along our Belize coastline, in particular the cayes and penninsula. "Massive Sargassum Seaweed Bloom is Choking the Caribbean".

https://robertscribbler.com/2015/08/19/massive-sargasso-seaweed-bloom-is-choking-the-caribbean-climate-change-a-likely-culprit/


(An 1891 map proved by NOAA shows the regions of low and high concentration sargassum seaweed in the North Atlantic and Caribbean. Image source: NOAA - Teachers at Sea.)


Using Sargassum Drifts As High-quality Compost
A study out of Texas State University tracks the degree to which massive drifts of sargassum can be converted into usable compost. Tina Waliczek, Jen Sembera, and Erica Meier dedicated months assembling data along Texas beach communities where the presence of sargassum drifts are considered an invasive eyesore and have calculable ill effects impacting that region's tourism industry. The results of their study are illustrated in their article entitled "Composting As An Alternative Management Strategy For Sargassum Drifts On Coastlines" published in the February issue of HortTechnology. The study used 12 cubic yards of sargassum as feedstock mixed with food waste and wood chips to create 72 cubic yards of workable matter. From this, the authors derived 25 cubic yards of stabilized compost. From that, they were able to test the quality of the resulting compost, and discovered sargassum-based compost was of either equal or higher quality than traditional or commonly sought compost; therefore its use in this manner proves to be a sensible way to manage the presence of this invasive species.


Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 84,397
Marty Offline OP
OP Offline

Mysterious masses of seaweed assault Caribbean islands

In retrospect, 2011 was just the first wave. That year, massive rafts of Sargassum-a brown seaweed that lives in the open ocean-washed up on beaches across the Caribbean, trapping sea turtles and filling the air with the stench of rotting eggs. "It presented immense challenges," says Hazel Oxenford, a fisheries biologist at The University of the West Indies in Cave Hill, Barbados. Before then, beachgoers had sometimes noticed "little drifty bits on the tideline," but the 2011 deluge of seaweed was unprecedented, she says, piling up meters thick in places. "We'd never seen it before."

Locals hoped the episode, a blow to tourism and fisheries, was a one-off. But a few years later "it came back worse," Oxenford says. Now, the Caribbean is bracing for what could be the mother of all seaweed invasions, with satellite observations warning of record-setting Sargassum blooms and seaweed already swamping beaches. Jim Gower, a remote-sensing expert with Fisheries and Oceans Canada who is based in Sidney, British Columbia, and his colleagues looked for spots on the ocean's surface that reflected unusual amounts of near-infrared light, a part of the spectrum that plants don't harvest. Data from May 2011 showed a huge patch of floating plants, presumably Sargassum, off the coast of Brazil-far to the south of its normal habitat. By September, it stretched from the Caribbean all the way to the coast of Africa, the team reported in 2013.

To confirm that the Sargassum fouling Caribbean beaches in 2011 came from the tropical Atlantic, east of Brazil, Franks and his colleagues traced the likely path of seaweed masses backward through time. First, they compiled records of locations where Sargassum came ashore. Then, using information about surface currents, they calculated its likely source. "Invariably, in all of those instances, it tracked back to the [tropical] region," says Franks, who reported the findings in 2016. "None of it ever tracked northward into the Sargasso Sea."

Click here to read the rest of the article in Science Magazine


Masses Of Seaweed Threaten Fisheries And Foul Beaches

If you've been to a beach this summer, anywhere from Texas to the Carolinas, you've likely seen it. Masses of brown seaweed, sometimes a few clumps, often big mounds, line the shore. It's sargassum, a floating weed that's clogging bays and piling up on beaches in the Gulf and Caribbean.

In Barbados, Hazel Oxenford says sargassum is more than a headache, it's a national emergency. Oxenford, a fisheries biologist at the University of the West Indies, says the seaweed piles up on the shoreline there 10 to 12 feet high. Even worse, she says, masses of the weed cover the water near the beaches.

"It creates tremendous problems for the natural ecosystems," she says. "We've had significant loss of endangered sea turtles that have actually drowned because they can't get to the surface because the sargassum above them is so high."

When large mats first appeared in the Caribbean, many thought it was from the Sargasso Sea, an area in the Atlantic north of the Caribbean. But Franks and other researchers traced the seaweed to a massive bloom that has appeared off the coast of Brazil. Ocean currents carry the seaweed up the South American coast into the Caribbean, where Franks says the impact on fisheries has been catastrophic.

Click here to read the rest of the article in NPR

Here is a podcast about Sargassum on "All Things Considered" on NPR




Mexican Caribbean sees sargassum barriers placed from Cancun to Chetumal

After a delay, the first sargassum barriers have been placed in the sea which will eventually run from Cancun to Chetumal.

The Secretary of Ecology and Environment of Quintana Roo, Alfredo Arellano Guillermo, says the government has begun working with the Chetumal company Goimar Logistics and Services with seaweed barrier placements in the sea.

"The project consists of the installation of a system of containment barriers that will be placed along 27 kilometers of the state coast from Canc�n, head of the municipality of Benito Ju�rez in the north, to Chetumal Bay, head of the municipality of Oth�n Pompeyo Blanco to the south," he said.

According to the development company, the containment line integrates tools used for the containment of oil spills and have been developed for the management of sargassum. The barrier is non-polluting and resistant to waves and is supported with seabed anchoring.

Once in place, the barriers will redirect the collected sargassum away from the coast. The company says the barriers are a technique for the control of natural and artificial marine contingencies. They are composed of a flotation system and polyvinyl coated canvas barrier with additives for ultraviolet ray resistance.


Once completely installed, 27 kilometers of barriers will float along the coast which will prevent a large majority of the seaweed from reaching the beaches. This project is the first one coordinated by a state government which in part, has resulted after numerous tourist complaints about the seaweed along the Yucatan coast.

The installation of the barrier system will include the municipalities of Othon P. Blanco, Benito Ju�rez, Solidaridad, Puerto Morelos and Tulum.

Riviera Maya News.com



Minister Heredia speaks on sargassum

With the recent issues involving the overgrowth of sargassum along Belize's coastline, many communities have been doing everything possible to not only clean, but to minimize the amounts accumulated on the seashores. Various communities such as San Pedro, Caye Caulker, Hopkins and Placencia are all battling with the seemingly never-ending incease of sargassum on their beaches. Minister of Tourism, Manuel Heredia Jr, and inhabitant of San Pedro, spoke on the issue.

Manuel Heredia Jr. Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation: "We have a task force made up of DOE, Coastal Zone, Fisheries Department and our own people form the industry as to what will be the short term, middle term and long term for this one because we have seen rather than minimizing it; it is increasing. The amount that we are getting in the Belizean Coast Line is much greater than anytime in my 30 years of fishing that I did. I have never seen anything like that. It used to be three months now we cannot say how long it will last. It was predicted by scientist that it will finalize in the middle of August . We are now in September and we are seeing it rather than diminishing it is increasing so I had a visit to Placencia on Wednesday and I stopped by also at Hopkins to see."

He, however, states how pleased he is to see everyone working together and the plans that are in store to minimize the current problem.

Manuel Heredia Jr. Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation: "I am glad of the initiative that stakeholders and the villagers are taking in Placencia. The second step to that is putting these curtains to protect. It will not be to stop it but to protect it before it reaches the beach so they are working on that and they will advise us and so on when they have all the information together. Like in San Pedro, Gran Caribe started with that already but it needs to be a team effort that all hotels will do to divert it and eventually it can go to an area where it doesn’t affect the industry."

LOVEFM



Working with Southern Enviromental Association (SEA) last week at Gladden Spit and Silk Cayes Marine Reserve, we came upon a huge field of sargassum. You can gauge the size by our boat in the lower left. What you see is about 1/4 of the total field even though the drone was at maximum height of 1600ft.

Photo and text by Tony Rath


Page 2 of 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Link Copied to Clipboard
March
S M T W T F S
1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31
Cayo Espanto
Click for Cayo Espanto, and have your own private island
More Links
Click for exciting and adventurous tours of Belize with Katie Valk!
Who's Online Now
0 members (), 372 guests, and 0 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Forum Statistics
Forums44
Topics79,199
Posts500,011
Members20,460
Most Online7,413
Nov 7th, 2021



AmbergrisCaye.com CayeCaulker.org HELP! Visitor Center Goods & Services San Pedro Town
BelizeSearch.com Message Board Lodging Diving Fishing Things to Do History
BelizeNews.com Maps Phonebook Belize Business Directory
BelizeCards.com Picture of the Day

The opinions and views expressed on this board are the subjective opinions of Ambergris Caye Message Board members
and not of the Ambergris Caye Message Board its affiliates, or its employees.

Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5