Hoteliers hit by the current sargassum wave are having to take matters into their own hands to deal with the floating marine algae, after government admitted that there was no national sargassum plan in place.
With 2025 predicted to be a record-breaking year for sargassum across the Caribbean, parts of the Cayman Islands have seen huge waves of it coming ashore in East End, North Side, Bodden Town and West Bay.
Complaints
Marc Langevin, general manager of The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman, said that the hotel wasn’t usually affected by sargassum, but “last week we had a significant amount entering through our canal which ended in our marina on the resort side, and [we] received numerous complaints from our guests due to the pungent smell.”
Sharlene Brenkus, Cayman Islands Tourism Association president and manager of the Wyndham Reef Resort on the eastern end of Grand Cayman, said that the sargassum “has been pretty chronic for the past four to six weeks. It’ll clear up for a day or so, but then it just comes back in.”
The challenge, said Brenkus, is that when sargassum hits the shoreline, it starts to die and gives off its distinctive smell due to the emission of hydrogen sulphide, which can lead to respiratory issues.
Measures such as sargassum booms and sargassum boats are expensive, says Brenkus. “One entity on its own can’t afford to find a solution, but if the private sector and the public sector come together, we might be able to create proactive measures to help us mitigate some of what we’re experiencing.”
Clean-up costs
The financial impact on hotels such as Wyndham Reef Resort can be significant, both in having to relocate guests who might wish to move away from the worst-affected areas, and the cost of dealing with the sargassum itself.
“It’s super-expensive,” says Brenkus. “We have a cleaning crew every day which comes in and rakes the beach. If it’s really bad, we have them come back in the late afternoon.”
Raking up the sargassum can take precious sand with it, so the Wyndham has a beach-friendly way of dealing with the issue.
“It’s inevitable that you’re going to pick up sand with the sargassum, and sand, as you know, is something that nobody can afford to be without,” says Brenkus, “because it causes beach erosion. So we just let the sargassum dry out and it dissolves, almost like an ash, into what we call ‘dirty sand’ even though it isn’t actually dirty. We’ll bury that back under the good sand and help replenish the beach. It’s very organic, very eco-friendly, very labour intensive and very costly.”
From her position as both a hotel manager and CITA president, Brenkus says that government needs to step in and deal with the issue on a more permanent basis.
“At the moment everyone is talking about it, but when it’s gone, it just falls by the wayside,” she says. “We need to continue that conversation, to be proactive and find solutions that help on a long-term basis.”
Brenkus is currently waiting for a date to be fixed for a meeting with CITA and the Ministry of Tourism. “Sargassum and beach erosion version need to start to take centre stage, right? Because what we’re selling here is beach; it’s the backbone of the island and a super-important asset.”
Silver lining
Marleine Gagnon, proprietor of Turtle Nest Inn in Bodden Town, said that she is taking the sargassum influx “philosophically”.
“It seems to bring more sand onto the beach which is good and it attracts more herons which are beautiful to see,” she said. “But it’s not the nicest thing to deal with, especially when it starts covering the whole water up to the reef.”
She added, “Our guests are very understanding and are happy to explore the island and go to other beaches if needed. They see us working on the beach every day, fighting it and they know that it’s a phenomenon which is out of our control.”
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Does the government care about the sargassum or not?
Comparable to Kenny’s park and failed Barbados/CAL route, land banking, cruise berthing referendum all this money could have been placed in helping to reduce this annual problem. Kenny wants more tourist to visit but this is the product a tourist will have to endure? Humble yourself sir and remember your mistakes are costing the hard earning people of this country.
There is no “National Sargassum Plan”. Should there be such a thing? What will it present? Should sargassum cleanup be a Government cost?
The causes of phenomenal sargassum blooming over the past decade or so, are far beyond the scope of the Cayman Islands Government, or anyone else here, to address. Unless man were able to control the sargassum blooming and the waves which carry it, there is nothing which can be done, except to clean it up.
Is Government going to write a Plan, prepare a Business Case, do an EIA, hire consultants and undertake other costly measures just to do the obvious?
These phenomenonal sargassum blooms will not stop by any measure we can undertake, nor will the currents which bring them to our shores, therefore cleaning the beaches is the only option.
Ideally, this should be an entrepreneurial opportunity, facilitated by Govt if necessary but not necessarily a direct cost to Government.
As for a “national sargassum plan”, what is it expected to deliver but the basic obvious…clean the beaches and watch out for turtle nests!
Hotels, hire beach clean-up crews a-la the NICE Program. Win-win!
Your Govt. is sooooo sloooow to get things done. By the time a plan is approved for the Sargassum it will be over, then you can repeat the steps next year.
No plans for:
Sargassum
Beach erosion
Public transport
Mount Trashmore
Drunk driving
Focus on disincentives for foreigners to come here to invest their time and money.
Not what I voted for.
Public Works Department was given links to a cost-effective tug and barge system for collecting sargassum BEFORE it gets to Cayman. The tug section is equipped with a conveyor belt which lifts the sargassum into an attached barge which can also have its own power unit or be taken ashore by another small tug. You purchase one tug, perhaps 4 barges, and create a landing zone – once ashore the farmers love the stuff. Now in reality, sargassum removal is probably a shared function between PWD and DEH – manpower and safety. But unless someone gets fired, nothing is going to happen. Next time around, ask your MLA wannabe if they support sargassum clearance in this way.