As the Sargassum continues to swamp the beaches in San Pedro, it has quickly become an eyesore for locals but also for tourists. And while the Ministry of Blue Economy had been spearheading the clean up efforts, BTB also joined in to assist. Cabinet has directed that a Sargassum Task Force be formed, allocating 1.2 million towards the cause. The Minister of Tourism gave us more details on their progress today.
Anthony Mahler, Minister of Tourism, Youth, & Sports
"Well we are being inundated by it and what we want to do is create a short term, medium term, and long term program for us to be able to manage it as best as possible. So between minister Perez and I we took a paper to cabinet and it was approved and so we will begin. Initially it was work done by the Blue Economy, work done by the local authorities and work done by the BTB so we want to combine all our resources and all our efforts to ensure that we can continue to fight off sargassum. It is predicted that this is going to continue to be a rough year and so we have to try to deal with it as best as possible."
"It is 70% more than in 2022 I've been told by the scientists or the people who have experience in that so it is really really bad this year."
Mahler says work will commence within the coming weeks.
