Puerto Morelos, Mexico - Mexican authorities are undergoing massive efforts to scoop up sargassum seaweed from the country's beaches, which have largely emptied due to its "unbearable stench."
A small skiff moves through a stinking carpet of sargassum, dragging what looks like a threshing machine through the brown, floating seaweed that's currently choking the normally clear waters of the Mexican Caribbean.
A round-the-clock defense is underway against the invasion of Mexico's international tourism hub by the yellow and brown seaweed, including boats, barriers, and manual beach cleaning teams.
An AFP team traveled through the Riviera Maya and Tulum aboard one of the 27 specialized ships the Mexican Navy has used since 2019 to contain the proliferation of sargassum.
The boat moves as if through a video game, searching for concentrations of the weeds to suck up. A ramp built into the prow uses a mechanical belt to scoop the sargassum off the surface, bringing it into a chute inside the boat.
"It's been an intense season that really demanded greater effort," said Rear Admiral Topiltzin Flores, the leader of the operation, who explained their goal is to concentrate efforts on the open ocean and prevent sargassum from reaching the coast.
Personnel from the Marines and local government gathered over 100,000 tons of sargassum in the first half the year, already surpassing the 92,782 tons gathered in all of last year.
But the seaweed has still reached many beaches of the Mexican Caribbean, where few tourists want to sunbathe or swim while enveloped in the stench of rotting eggs.
The government insists that foreign tourists are arriving in record numbers, although President Claudia Sheinbaum acknowledged a slight drop when she unveiled an ambitious strategy to fight the weedy invasion.
"There haven't been major losses," she added, attributing the shift to the price of plane fuel.
Near one mountain of sargassum is the Playa del Carmen hotel where Tere May works as a chef. She complained that the "unbearable stench" was keeping all 24 rooms empty.
"There is nothing right now," she said. The sargassum "has affected everything."