In July, a group of volunteers carried shovels and rakes to Handsome Bay, Virgin Gorda, to clean up the sargassum seaweed that had washed ashore there.
“The larger equipment is the way to go,” said AJ Syrett, a scuba instructor at Dive BVI. “The shovels and rakes took a long time.”
The group eventually completed the task with the help of machines provided by Ebony and Ivory Construction, but the sargassum soon came back.
A similar story has been playing out across much of the Caribbean.
The floating seaweed, which has always washed ashore in the region during the spring and summer, is beneficial in moderate quantities: It provides habitat and food for marine life, and it helps stabilise shorelines.
But in the past five years, sargassum has begun to overwhelm many shorelines from Florida to Trinidad, covering beaches, emitting a smell like rotten eggs, and threatening marine ecosystems.
Scientists, who blame the increase largely on climate change, say the problem is likely to get worse.
Meanwhile, leaders around the region, who are increasingly concerned about the tourism industry, are considering how to fight back.
To address such concerns, the University of the West Indies hosted a Sargassum Symposium last week in Barbados.
See the Aug. 27, 2015 edition for full coverage.
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