Environment initiates work for sustainable management of sargassum

The Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources, through the Vice Ministry of Coastal and Marine Resources, established the “Multisectoral Table for the Integral Management of Sargassum” to create consensus and agreements that allow the implementation of actions focused on the protection of marine ecosystems from the harmful effects of this type of algae.

The working group was headed by Minister Miguel Ceara Hatton, who stated that sargassum’s economic and social impact is severe, mainly representing an overwhelming problem for the coastal environment, tourism, and human health.

He said that it is not a problem created in the country and that since there is no solution to this problem, it should be dealt with together to deal with the situation.

“The overgrowth and expansion of sargassum has been generated directly and indirectly due to the anthropogenic environmental footprint, since it is the result generated by aquatic fertilization, climate change, inappropriate land use and ocean acidification. Therefore, we can point out that, in unbalanced conditions, it must have a special management,” he expressed.

The minister indicated that, in recent years, large massacres of marine macroalgae, mainly of the genus (Sargassum), have arrived on the coasts of the Caribbean Sea, directly preventing bathers, fishermen, and boats from making free use of the beach.

For his part, Enrique Pugibet Bobea, a specialist in Marine Biology from the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources, expressed his concern for this year, 2023, since sargassum is projected to invade the coasts of the Dominican Republic, so work must begin on the subject from now on as he stated.

Among the fundamental axes prioritized in the table is working to create a comprehensive and sustainable management plan for sargassum, which allows the systematic application of short, medium, and long-term strategies to prevent seaweed’s continued arrival on the beaches—algae in invasive numbers to mitigate its adverse effects.

The table comprises representatives of the public and private sectors, academics, entrepreneurs and innovators, hotel groups, business people, investors in the coastal zone, local communities, and resource users, among other interested sectors.