Barbados, the tropical paradise at the eastern tip of the Caribbean Sea, is battling an unexpected adversary: an overgrowth of seaweed that’s threatening its vital tourism and fishing industries.
“These sargassum come from the further east coast of North America, then come all the way down to the Caribbean. We have been having this problem for a couple of years now,” said Grantley, a staff member at a local resort.
The brownish seaweed, known as sargassum, usually begins to pile up on Barbados’s beaches in early January. However, over the past two years, it has been arriving as early as November, accumulating up to four to five meters thick in just three days.
International research suggests that global warming and industrial wastewater discharges are fueling the overgrowth. Increased nitrogen and phosphorus in the ocean accelerate the reproduction of this marine plant, depleting oxygen in the seawater and causing massive fish deaths.
The excessive seaweed growth poses a significant challenge to fisheries and hampers the socioeconomic development of the country.
“The sargassum seaweed is an increasing threat to our fishing industry. Fishermen are being threatened obviously in the context of their livelihood. These are issues that we have had to battle with,” said Kerrie Drurard Symmonds, Barbados’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade.
On a 360-meter-long tourist beach, bulldozers work for four hours each morning to clear the seaweed before visitors arrive.
“It starts to give out a bad odor. People are not really happy being in the sea until it takes a while for the workers to clean up the beach,” said Wiend, a driver at a local tourism company.
Across the entire east coast of Barbados, at least 500 forklifts carry out such operations every morning.
The situation in Barbados underscores a growing global environmental concern. Coastal regions around the world, including Asia, are facing similar challenges due to climate change and pollution. The overgrowth of seaweed not only affects local economies but also highlights the urgent need for global cooperation to address environmental issues that transcend borders.
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
