by Donald Wood
Last updated: 4:35 PM ET, Wed May 8, 2019
The battle against the continued invasion of sargassum on the coastal regions of Mexico will be handled this year by the country's naval forces.
According to Mexico News Daily, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced during a press conference the Secretariat of the Navy would use the country's experts and equipment to combat the arrival of as much as 1.1 million tons of sargassum in 2019.
Lopez Obrador said there was no need to hire a private company that specializes in the removal of the seaweed when the Navy can handle the situation. The president and his officials believe the strategy would avoid additional costs and be more efficient.
The Mexican Navy would use the low-flying planes it typically applies to find drug shipments at sea to detect the seaweed and its "first-class technical vessels" to remove sargassum before it washes up on the beaches of Quintana Roo.
The government's anti-sargassum plan will be presented to the Secretariat of Finance next week, which will develop an economic plan to fund the project.
The secretariats of the Environment and Tourism, the National Tourism Promotion Fund, state and municipal authorities and the private sector will also contribute to the plan.
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