Mexico cleaned 100K+ tons of sargassum in 2026, but the seaweed crisis is now threatening its tourism

A vast belt of brown seaweed is stretching across the Atlantic Ocean, from the coast of West Africa to the Gulf of Mexico, creating a phenomenon so extensive that it can be tracked from space. Known as the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt (GASB), it has reached extraordinary proportions in 2026, about 5,000 miles in length.Satellite measurements showed 37.5 million metric tons of sargassum across the Atlantic in May, while researchers at the University of South Florida (USF) recorded 33.6 million metric tons across the monitored Atlantic basin in June. They now expect 2026 to be at least the second-biggest year on record.The transformation has been remarkably fast. The enormous belt was virtually nonexistent before 2010. Within a year, about 1 million metric tons were recorded across the region in 2011, compared with approximately 40 million in 2025. Brian Barnes, a research assistant professor at USF’s College of Marine Science, told Reuters that the trend suggests the amount could be doubling roughly every five years.What is sargassum and why is it spreading?Sargassum is a brown seaweed that naturally forms floating mats and has long been associated with the Sargasso Sea in the Nort...