Will seaweed affect cruise ships?

It will not stop any ship. However, if you are out fishing on your boat, you will likely spend time cleaning a fouled prop. The real impact for a cruise is if the seaweed has landed on the beach you plan to visit. This stuff is smelly and toxic as it decays.



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There's been a record-breaking sargassum seaweed bloom in 2023 in the Caribbean Sea. In order to help you plan your beach vacation, we've created a list of Caribbean beaches not affected by sargassum seaweed historically. This article was originally published in 2019.

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Palm Beach in Aruba, Dutch Caribbean It's one of the most reliable Caribbean islands without sargassum. While there are several small, boutique-sized hotels in Aruba, here are two of our favourite large resorts on Palm Beach and Eagle Beach.

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The seaweed belt remains huge – there's an estimated 6 million tons of sargassum still floating around – but it's down several million tons in just a few months. That's good news for residents, visitors and workers of beach areas of the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean.

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The amount of sargassum seaweed in Cancun varies by season and even daily. Generally the worst months for seaweed are July and August.

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2023 is shaping up to be a banner year for sargassum, a type of brown macroalgae now starting to wash up on beaches across the Caribbean. The thick dead tangled heaps of seaweed stink like rotten eggs and could cost many millions in holiday revenues this summer.

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Popular resort hubs, including Playa del Carmen and Tulum, have ramped up efforts to deter sargassum from affecting travelers. What is this? Both destinations have set up temporary barriers and hired more cleaners in an effort to attract more travelers.

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Yes – this year's 2023 Caribbean sargassum bloom in the looks like it will be one for the record books, surpassing many other recent seasons.

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I had island tour guests visiting from Margaritaville over in St. Thomas earlier this week, and they said that the sargassum was very bad over there, and that makes sense. The winds here typically blow east to west, which means they are blowing directly toward Margaritaville, Sapphire, and the Ritz, for example.

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However due to ocean currents, the amount of seaweed landing on beaches in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico in June and July 2023 was lower than expected. There's more good news! The sargassum seaweed forecast for September 2023 is minimal seaweed in the Caribbean Sea.

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Bits of Sargassum seaweed are washing ashore around Avenida 16-18 on Tuesday, May 23, 2023. Giant blobs of Sargassum hug the shoreline next to the William O Lockhart Municipal Pier in Lake Worth Beach, Florida on June 1, 2023. Sargassum accumulates on the beach at Phipps Ocean Park Tuesday May 30, 2023 in Palm Beach.

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7 September 2023 Update: The Turks and Caicos is experiencing medium levels of sargassum at this time. Grace Bay, Leeward Beach, Sapodilla Bay, Taylor Bay, and the Bight Beach remain largely free of sargassum. Sargassum that washed onshore in late August has largely dissipated.

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Playa Norte, Isla Mujeres, Mexico Playa Norte is a dazzling beach in the Caribbean without sargassum seaweed. This beach is a perfect white sand haven for vacationers to take a break from their busy lives.

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Massive seaweed bloom is largest seen And this year's bloom is the largest on record. As of April 2023, this year's sargassum bloom is headed for the Caribbean and east coast of Florida. While some areas are already seeing the sargassum come ashore, the bulk of it is expected to arrive in June or July.

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The upcoming 2023 summer vacation holiday season for Cancun and Riviera Maya are forecast to be sargassum-free according to Esteban Jesús Amaro Mauricio. The Director of the Quintana Roo Sargassum Monitoring Network reported that daily monitoring shows a lack of sargassum arrival for the next three months.

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While exposed eastern shores are most likely to get hit by surges of sargassum, some beaches in Mexico have no sargassum. This includes Playa Norte on Isla Mujeres, Quintana Roo and Cozumel's western shore. They're generally seaweed-free. However, much depends on winds and ocean currents.

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Sargassum is type of brown seaweed that drifts on the ocean surface accumulating along beaches and coastlines throughout the Caribbean, Mexico, Texas and Florida, including Miami-Dade County annually from March to October.

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In the Caribbean, seaweed season is generally May to October. The worst time for seaweed in Cancun, the Dominican Republic and much of the Caribbean is during the summer months.

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