Mexico’s Caribbean beaches experience ‘alarming’ algae problem

A boat surrounded by sargassum in Mexico (Eduardo Verdugo/AP)

Mexican authorities have said the problem of foul-smelling sargassum – a seaweed-like algae – on the country’s Caribbean coast beaches is “alarming”.

The arrival of heaps of brown, foul-smelling sargassum on the coast’s normally pristine white sand beaches comes just as tourism is recovering to pre-pandemic levels, though job recovery in the country’s top tourist destination has been slower.