by Lacey Pfalz
Last updated: 9:15 AM ET, Fri July 31, 2026
As the record Sargassum season continues, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced on Thursday, July 30, a new $115 million plan to address the crisis, which has Mexican Caribbean destinations calling for a state of emergency.
According to The New York Times, the new plan will include two 200-foot ships that can haul over three tons of seaweed a minute from Mexico’s Caribbean coastline.
The Mexican Navy will also add over 30 miles of containment barriers, which should trap the algae before it ever reaches the coast and popular beaches. Hundreds of military members, hotel workers and local government employees will also work to clear off any Sargassum that ends up on the beaches.
One of the Sargassum-trawling ships is already operating in the Caribbean. Another, with a capacity for collecting 700 tons, will be deployed in a month.
The state of Quintana Roo has been the hardest hit, and is home to critically important tourism destinations, including Cancun. According to local environmental officials, the state alone has seen up to 9,000 tons of Sargassum wash ashore on area beaches each day, which is four times that of last year’s total and 27 times the historic daily average.
“The effort so far has been titanic, but we have to do more to prevent sargassum from reaching the beaches,” said President Sheinbaum.
Scientists believe a warming ocean due to climate change, as well as agricultural runoff, has helped to fuel this ever-increasing algae issue, which has been reported in high amounts from Florida’s Panhandle to the Mexican Caribbean.
Sargassum season, which typically begins in spring and ends in October, also began in January, prompting officials across the Gulf of Mexico to prepare far in advance. The University of South Florida’s Optical Oceanography Laboratory estimates there are about 5 million metric tons of Sargassum floating throughout the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, nearly double last year’s total.
And besides being unsightly and making beach-going unpleasant, decaying Sargassum can become rife with harmful bacteria and release gases like hydrogen sulfide and ammonia, potentially harming humans during prolonged exposure.
Quintana Roo’s tourism industry applauded the new plan.
Iván Chávez, executive vice president of Grupo Vidanta, called the new plan “the most comprehensive response to Sargassum in the world…For years, everyone fought this battle on their own — each hotel, each municipality with its own netting and its own methods. Today, that is over.”
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