Santo Domingo.- According to the University of South Florida’s June report, the amount of algae present in the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt, spanning from West Africa to the Gulf of Mexico, has slightly decreased since May 2023, with a total wet weight of approximately 9 million metric units.
The report noted that the decline in the Gulf of Mexico surpassed expectations, with a 75% decrease compared to the previous month. In terms of historical comparison from 2011 to 2022, the current numbers fall within the bottom 25th percentile for the same period. However, in the Caribbean Sea, which still had around 2 million metric tons, the figures remained in the top 50th percentile.
The Optical Oceanography Laboratory at the University highlighted that the majority of the algae in the Caribbean Sea was concentrated around the Lesser Antilles and along the southern coasts of Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico.
Data provided by the National Authority for Maritime Affairs (Anamar) indicated that over 40 million metric tons of sargassum had circulated in the waters of the Dominican Republic between January and May 2023.