by Lacey Pfalz
Last updated: 8:30 AM ET, Tue September 2, 2025
From April to October, authorities and volunteers around the Mexican Caribbean collect sargassum, a type of floating brown algae, from beaches: this week, over 55 tons was collected from Playa Chumul in Cozumel.
According to Riviera Maya News, it was the third mass sargassum beach cleanup this season, where 500 volunteers, public servants and Marines participated in clearing the beach, which is part of the region’s Sargassum Response Strategy.
All of the sargassum, which resembles seaweed, will be removed from the beaches, dried, and then returned to the environment, where it cannot wash ashore again.
According to Irwin Javier Batún Alpuche, the Director of Zofemat (the Federal Maritime Terrestrial Zone) Cozumel, the areas with the most sargassum are typically located on the eastern portion of the Mexican island.
Early last month, almost 1,260 tons of sargassum was removed from several beaches in Costa Maya, where there are also containment barriers located off the coast to collect some before it washes ashore.
In late July, the island of Isla Mujeres collected roughly 2,000 tons of the algae, which proliferates widely in the warming waters of the Caribbean.
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