We have been here for the past week. Eastern Beaches (Dawn & Orient) are caked with Sargassum. The cleaning is taking place all day and cannot keep up. Western facing beaches are all clear (Pinel, Anse Marcel, Friars, Happy, Rouge, Plum, Longue, Mullet, Maho, Great Bay). The attached is Dawn Beach taken from OBBR.
Why does this happen periodically? Is it weather at certain times of the year? What churns up all this from where it's secured to rocks, reefs, coral etc?
We were in Martinique in March and I saw what seemed to be a sargassum control measure on the Atlantic coast. There are "booms" (cables just offshore and parallel to the shoreline supported by a series of floats) that appear to collect the weed before it can wash up on the beach. I've attached a couple of photos taken from about <1000 feet above. Might work for Orient Bay? Dave.
When we flew into SXM, looking out the window at ~20,000' we can see "globs" of sargassum scattered all over the ocean. You can tell it's traveling west due to the teardrop backside of the blob.
The J.W.Marriott has their sand machine clearing the Sargassum from early morning until about 10:00AM. It does a good job. OBBR has a large front loader working most of the day pushing and scooping it to a large pile at the end of the beach past Coral Beach Club.
Here is Orient today. It's getting pretty bad.
Again the Western facing beaches do not have any evidence of seaweed. We were at Anse Marcel today and it was wonderful. But yet the Ferry to Pinel Island can barely cut thru it to depart.
Hope it clears up soon. We saw a lot of it last summer at Orient. A very good reason to re-open and re-build Club Orient so we don't have to bring a lawn mower to get into the water.
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