Sargassum Seaweed Treatment

In response to media reports, the Collectivité de Saint-Martin wishes to clarify how sargassum seaweed is collected in the northern part of the island. The volume of sargassum seaweed washed up this year on the northern part of Orient Bay beach was particularly high.

As a result, the frequency of strandings was much higher than the rate of collection and removal of algae to the Grandes Cayes ecosite.

This situation was compounded by difficulties accessing Orient Bay beach, as the Collectivité did not obtain the necessary permits to use the passage on private property. This was rightly so, since the repeated passage of heavy goods vehicles could have compromised the integrity of the underground networks on these private plots.

As an alternative solution, the Collectivité has identified a temporary storage site for sargassum seaweed, well away from homes. The treatment of these volumes is underway according to a now clearly established method. Indeed, the successive operations of collection, transport, recovery and rerouting of the seaweed have considerably increased the proportion of sand contained in the sargassum. In order, on the one hand, not to accentuate the erosion phenomenon which is already affecting our coastlines and on the other hand, not to increase the treatment cost per ton, it was decided to immerse the sargassum in the near coastal zone, in order to remove the sand before transferring it to the Grandes Cayes site.

Aware of the contribution of organic matter and the brown plume that this immersion can generate, and after consultation with the Saint-Martin Nature Reserve, it was agreed to adapt the frequency of these operations in order to reduce the potential impact on nearby coastal environments.

It should therefore be recalled that any operation initiated by the Collectivité de Saint-Martin as part of the removal and treatment of sargassum algae was initially analyzed, consulted and programmed with partner authorities, in the interest of the territory and its inhabitants.