by Donald Wood
Last updated: 12:55 AM ET, Tue November 27, 2018
Mexican officials announced they are planning an international meeting to develop ideas and solutions to combat Sargassum seaweed along popular beaches in tourist hotspots.
According to Riviera Maya News, Quintana Roo federal deputy Luis Alegre Salazar said the meeting was proposed as a result of previous plans not working and an estimated 300 million pesos already being spent on the problem.
While Salazar said he regrets the amount of resources used to combat the seaweed without long-term results, the meeting will look to other countries for solutions to the Sargassum problem.
"The intention of the international meeting is to create a cooperation of solutions that have worked in other countries because the sargasso here is not the same as what they have in Guyana or Costa Rica, so we have to study with those who managed the sargasso in other countries to see what they did to control the problem," Salazar told the Riviera Maya News.
Government officials are hoping the meeting will result in ideas which can contain the Sargassum in 2019, as well as possibly breed a working relationship between countries battling the seaweed.
"Under the theory that the sargasso we receive comes from Brazil and that they generate it but do not suffer from it, we can look for a solution that implies the application of experiences that involves an international cooperation to reduce sargasso to natural quantities," Salazar said.
While a date remains uncertain, the international meeting is expected to take place in December or January with 19 countries impacted by Sargassum in attendance. The meeting will likely take place in Cancun.
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