Authorities began Sargassum Seaweed Cleanup in Miami Beach

DORAL, FL –  Since last Friday, Miami-Dade county crews began a Sargassum Seaweed Cleanup operation. Mayor Carlos Gimenez approved an emergency contract for the removal of Sargassum on beaches with the most accumulation.

The monthly cost of having a Sargassum Seaweed Cleanup is $ 350,000 and the amount to be collected would be the equivalent of about 880 trucks full with the seaweed.

This emergency measure will provide resources until the end of the current fiscal year as the County identifies additional resources for fiscal 2019-20.

To Miami-Dade residents and tourists who visit the beaches, especially during the summer when this situation is very common, sargassum has become a real problem, because the amount arriving this year is very large.

For this reason, the local government started a Sargassum Seaweed Cleanup to reduce the bad odor that the algae exhales.

Sargassum has inundated the beaches outside some nearby homes causing residents to get in the car and drive to be able to go to the beach. Also, they have endured the stench that comes when the brown ribbon of fresh sargassum rots in the sun.

While the seaweed isn’t associated to the health risks that closed beaches in Miami-Dade and beyond during last year’s red tide outbreak, the fact that it is so massive has been enough for Mayor Carlos Gimenez to declare it as a crisis.

How long will the Sargassum Seaweed Cleanup last?

Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Commission cleared the county’s first multi-week permit on Friday, which allowed Miami-Dade to deploy bulldozers and other heavy clean-up equipment through the weekend.

However, Fish and Wildlife’s Imperiled Species division has been approving one- and two-week permits for Miami-Dade’s beach-cleaning crews.

Miami-Dade plans daily clean-up of sargassum in the most vulnerable spots that are the beaches between 26th and 31st streets, South Pointe in South Beach, and beaches along jetties and breakwaters in Haulover and Bal Harbour.