# @afpphoto on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/Db0SFVXDNBJ
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/69179870-afpphoto-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/13f7cb946e.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-08-09T11:00:51.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** AFP Photo (@afpphoto) — https://gondola.cc/afpphoto

## Caption

Empty beaches and 'unbearable stench': Mexico wages war on sargassum weeds⁣
⁣
A small skiff moves through a stinking carpet of sargassum, dragging what looks like a threshing machine through the brown, floating seaweed choking the normally clear waters of the Mexican Caribbean.⁣
⁣
A round-the-clock defense is underway against the invasion in Mexico's international tourism hub, including boats, barriers and manual beach cleaning teams, though officials are still downplaying the impact.⁣
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 of the water, bringing it into a chute inside the boat.⁣
⁣
Efforts to scoop up sargassum are carried out on the high seas with a ship that can carry 300 tons of the seaweed, as well as smaller boats and amphibious vehicles. The final tactic entails gathering the brown algae by hand.⁣
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.⁣
Businesses have reduced their staff to adjust to the drop in tourism.⁣
⁣
📷 etrellafoto⁣
#AFPPhoto

## Stats

- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 0
- **Shares:** 0
- **Comments:** 0

## Tags

afpphoto

---
Copyright (c) Gondola