TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin seaweed on Great Bay Beach

Just looked at the Holland House web cam and noticed lots of seaweed now in water. Prior to this that beach has been clear. Maybe all the storm turbulence has stirred it up? Still clear at GCBC.

Yes, I have been watching that webcam for a week or so and this is the first seaweed I've seen there. Too bad. Fortunately, no ship due in today, although there is one scheduled for tomorrow.

With so few at that beach without a ship in port they are probably waiting to clean it up tomorrow when a ship is in.

We are at the Divi on Little Bay side and the sea weed is ubbelievable. Still coming in so the plan to bring in a back hoe when it slows down. Will try to get a picture later and send to Carol to post. It's called Sargassum I hear.
Yucky and smelly.

Coffee,

There's been a tremendous amount of the dreaded Sargassum seaweed this year. When we arrived back on the island in April we could see it from the air although we didn't have a clue what it was at the time, though we would soon find out.

From day to day it would come and go based, I guess, on the wind and waves and it seemed to really do a number on most beaches, albeit at different times and to different degrees.

Our favorite beach is Mullet and we could actually see parts of the beach and the seaweed (or lack thereof....) from our terrace and that would serve as our deciding factor each day as to which beach to visit that day. We weren't there ourselves but heard from friends that Orient was really hit hard but our Friars and Ans Marcel days we didn't see one blade of seaweed. We visited Simpson Bay beach at Mary's Boon, right next door to Karakter, and there was very little there on the days we were but by the time we moved to BSV it was there and provided more job security to their ground crews the whole time we stayed there. I think there was only one day we could enjoy the water without the stuff.....

And the few times we went to P'berg we didn't see any there at Great Bay but the day we went in for our round the island trip it seemed to be almost everywhere indiscriminately.

Guess it's the phenom of the year. Well, that and the Sahara sands...... The good news is, usually if it's heavy on one side of the island you can find beaches in the opposite direction that are debris-free and enjoyable.

Like to see more webcams to decide which beach to go to on any given day while there.

Was shopping, just now got back, will post the picture later.

We were at P'burg today and the seaweed was bad. Big piles on the beach where it had been raked, tons more in the water. Club O yesterday was as nice as we have ever seen it. No weed, calm surf, just a beautiful day.

Just took a walk back to the beach. From Kakao all the way to Club O, all clear on the Eastern Front (clear of seaweed anyway).

Which is absolutely amazing, as friends were there off a cruise ship a couple of days ago, and posted pictures from Kakao with piles of seaweed. Obviously the currents have a big impact. It's obvious you can't know from day to day.

It has been accumulating on the Caribbean beaches for about three years now and causing great concern.It looks like it is going to continue to plague the island for a few more months.

It is amazing, from what we saw Monday, which sounds like what your friends saw, until a couple of days later. I have pix, if I ever figure out how to upload.

Coffee, hasn't Divi cleared it away? Complain!