Sargassum: New strandings expected

Although a brief lull spared a few beaches for about a week, Sargassum continues to wash up on the beaches of Saint Barthélemy. In its latest bulletin, Météo France “observes a cluster of small rafts on the southeastern horizon of Saint Barthélemy” and notes: “With a southeasterly flow, arrivals could be numerous and frequent along the exposed coastline.”
The usual areas, on the island’s east and north coasts, remain the hardest hit. The Grand-Cul-de-Sac lagoon has also experienced its first significant influx of Sargassum since the start of the season, to the point of covering a large portion of the beach.
Cleanup operations funded by the Territorial Collectivity continue almost daily. While some of the seaweed piled up at the Saint-Jean site was transported by barge to Saint Martin late last week, the mound of rotting sargassum remains high and foul-smelling. This is due to the gases released by the decomposing seaweed, as well as the juices oozing from it.
Between the start of the year and the end of March, more than 3,530 tons of sargassum were collected from the island’s beaches (JSB 1661). For now, to combat the seaweed invasion, the Collectivité has announced plans to install a “test” diversion barrier at the entrance to Marigot Bay during the summer school break. Additional barriers could then be installed over the next three years to protect the most affected bays. At the same time, private initiatives are being launched, particularly by certain hotels, to install their own protective systems.