Tulum’s sargacera, a boat used to catch sargassum in the Caribbean sea before it reaches the beach, has yet to go into operation.
The boat, sent by the Mexican Navy, is anchored at Playa Pescadores, is already awaiting repairs.
According to sources at the site, the vessel was in Puerto Morelos before delivered to Tulum.
The sargasso problem appears to be at bay for now. The Cancun Sargassum Monitoring Network on Saturday reported mostly moderate sargassum tides except in some beaches in Cozumel.
The network is made up of biologists, oceanologists, computer engineers, and hydrobiologists, and uses satellite and drone images to track sargassum. They also receive images and information from among its 60,000 Facebook followers.
Despite the breather, sargassum is still expected to be a bigger problem this year on the Caribbean coast than it was in 2018. Between 800,000 and one million tons of algae are forecast, five times more than last year.