The Caribbean region has suffered intensely from the sargassum crisis. Economists estimate the cost of sargassum clean-up efforts at 120 million USD in 2018 alone, and fewer tourists were recorded in 2018 on Mexico’s Caribbean coast.
Sargassum seaweed know no borders, and no one knows where sargassum will strike next. Faced with the wide-scale negative economic impact and public health risk, is it time for Caribbean nations to join forces and adopt a regional approach?
CLS, expert in Earth Observation and satellite oceanography, has developed an operational capability to detect sargassum and forecast their drift using optical and radar satellite sensors, covering the entire Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico regions. This reliable satellite-based service, developed with the support of the European Space Agency, has been validated with a group of 40+ local users in 2018 and today is used by Météo France in the French Antilles.
