There Is More Sargassum Than Ever in the Caribbean, and They Want to Turn It Into Energy
WIRED (Español) — August 2026

In the Caribbean, summer is supposed to be the season of sun, sand and crystal clear water. For the past 15 years, large quantities of sargassum have instead been invading beaches around the Gulf of Mexico every summer, arriving in step with the high tourism season.

Forecasts from the Optical Oceanography Laboratory at the University of South Florida indicate this summer could be the worst on record, with up to 400,000 tons of sargassum predicted to wash up on Mexican coasts. As it decomposes on the sand, the seaweed releases toxic hydrogen sulfide as well as the greenhouse gases methane and carbon dioxide.

A study by the Inter-American Development Bank estimates that sargassum drives down local GDP by 11.6 percent in Quintana Roo, the coastal state home to Cancun and Playa del Carmen. The Mexican hotel sector says clearing sargassum from beaches costs it more than $100 million a year.

The causes remain debated: warmer ocean waters, increasing agricultural fertilizer runoff and changes to ocean currents have all been proposed, but no definitive cause has been pinned down.

ENERGY FROM BIOMASS
Engineer Miguel Angel Ake Madera, founder and director of the Mexican company Nopalimex, argues that landed sargassum has to be processed in large quantities to stop being a problem — and that biofuel is the way to do it.

"By processing 500 tons of sargassum, 20,000 cubic meters of biogas is obtained," he says. A cubic meter of biogas can provide the same amount of energy as a liter of gasoline. "An average gas station in Mexico sells between 20,000 and 25,000 liters of fuel daily. 500 tons of sargassum daily could satisfy an equivalent demand."

Esteban Amaro, director of the Quintana Roo Sargassum Monitoring Network, agrees that fuel is the best product to focus on. Consumer products made from the seaweed are possible but inadvisable until the health risks are better studied.

"I believe that sargassum's purpose is to produce energy, because when it decomposes, it releases many heavy metals such as arsenic, lead and cadmium," Amaro says. "Therefore it is better to produce biofuels or biogas than everyday products like clothing or shoes."

A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF CARBON CREDITS
Researchers at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) have developed Sargapanel, a construction material using between 60 and 70 kilos of wet sargassum per panel. Compared with conventional paneling it is roughly 33 percent more flexible, more impact resistant and fire retardant. No chemical additives are used, so panels can be shredded at end of life and reintegrated into the production line.

"With this project, not only do we contribute to reducing the problem, we also generate profits from carbon credits. For every 5 tons of wet sargassum, a carbon credit is generated, and each credit is worth between $10 and $30," says Miriam Estevez Gonzalez, head of the group that developed Sargapanel at UNAM's Center for Applied Physics and Advanced Technology (CFATA) in Juriquilla, Queretaro.

WHY IT MATTERS FOR STOPSARGASSUM.ORG
This is the clearest mainstream statement of the case we make on our Technology and Solution pages: landed biomass carries arsenic, lead and cadmium, which is exactly why the safe destinations are energy and inert materials — not food, feed or cosmetics — and why interception offshore, before the biomass lands and rots, is cheaper than any cleanup that follows.

Source: https://www.wired.com/story/there-is-more-sargassum-than-ever-in-the-caribbean-and-they-want-to-turn-it-into-energy/
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