San Pedro’s sargassum crisis is costing the town council millions a year in cleanup costs alone, and the reality is that there may be no end to it any time soon. The science advisor for the San Pedro Town Council, Valentine Rosado, says every year the response has to be bigger than the last.
Making matters worse, chief meteorologist Ronald Gordon confirmed that several sargassum mats are heading toward the northern cayes. “We do expect that they may potentially have severe impact going into the next three to four days based on the models that we look at,” Gordon said. He added that while southern destinations like Hopkins and Placencia face a lower risk for now, San Pedro and Caye Caulker are looking at possible major impacts based on current projections.
Meanwhile, the reality on the ground now demands all hands on deck and a lot more on top to tackle the current situation in the Cayes. Rosado described it as an almost all-year-long worsening emergency, a battle coastal communities are fighting knowing they cannot fully win.
“If every property owner looks at their specific area and cleans up, we can actually manage this, but the problem is that we have a lot of property owners that are not doing anything. They’re not cleaning up,” Rosado said.
Rosado explained that the council’s Sargassum Red Phase declaration is part of a stoplight warning system developed over the past year. Yellow signals full response mode. Red means the situation has overwhelmed all available local resources.
“The red phase basically signals that we need all hands on deck. We need external support, we need as many people to come in and to assist with the cleanup,” he added.
Authorities have previously asked for the public’s suggestions and solutions on the sargassum issue, which has yet to yield any progress. In the meantime, Rosado said, “There’s no alternative to cleanup. Everyone’s waiting for some magical solution that’s gonna appear and get rid of the sargassum. But it has demonstrated that we just have to get it out of the water.”
The council is in talks with private landowners to establish additional composting and deposition sites and is pursuing partnerships with firms capable of neutralising heavy metals in deposited sargassum.
For now, he added, “Let’s be nice to the people that are working on sargassum because it’s hard work. Every scoop of sargassum helps… These are the people that are actually working, trying to make a difference and trying to control it, and we need to recognise them and we need to thank them. Let’s just be nice.”
