Sargassum has been washing up in growing numbers on the shores of the Caribbean Sea for more than a decade. Easily identified by its brown colour and a powerful stench, this algae in such increased volumes is seriously damaging tourism in island communities, catches in fishing industries and economies in general.
Coastlines stretching from Trinidad and Tobago to Anguilla, as well as beaches in Belize and southern Mexico, have been affected by the influx. Even worse, no one knows when the sargassum will arrive in any given year or what amount might wash ashore.
Sargassum floats in a large mass on the ocean’s surface. It can provide food and refuge for fish, birds, crabs, shrimp and other marine organisms. In limited amounts, washed-ashore sargassum also plays a role in maintaining Atlantic and Caribbean coastal ecosystems, providing vital nutrients such as carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus to coastal ecosystems and decreasing coastal erosion.
However, since 2011, up to three times the normal amount of sargassum has been washing ashore in the Caribbean, with this algae sometimes up to a metre deep.
Massive seaweed blooms damage fishing gear, boat engines and other fishing assets and have clogged fishing harbours and mooring sites across the eastern Caribbean. That impacts fisheries directly, decreasing the landings of important species because fishers simply cannot access their normal catches.
“Sargassum plagues our ocean and our shoreline every year,” says Roger Kennedy, a fisher from Delaford Bay on the island of Tobago. Roger, like many fishers in his community, has fished all his life and is now finding that the huge and unpredictable increase in sargassum is affecting his life and livelihood.
“Whenever it washes ashore in large quantities the other fishers and I are prevented from accessing our boats. When we are at sea, my fishing lines get entangled with it and that badly affects my catch for that day."
Now through the Climate Change Adaptation in the Eastern Caribbean Fisheries Sector Project (CC4FISH), FAO is working with fisherfolk, policymakers and scientists from the University of the West Indies’ Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies to increase the resilience of coastal communities and reduce their vulnerability to the deleterious effects of sargassum.