Background
The Riviera Maya, as a high-quality beach tourist destination, has been severely affected in recent years in the world market by the arrival of Sargasso.
Climate change conditions make it predict that the arrival of Sargasso to the Mayan Riviera will increase in the coming years as well in all Caribbean destinations.
Although there are numerous promising lines of research to give Sargasso added value, the fact is that to date there is no profitable model to industrialize the capture and processing of the algae.
To date, the most common practice is the removal of Sargasso on the beach. This has strong implications for the quality of tourist services, flora and fauna mortality, and vulnerability to erosion due to sand removal along with Sargasso. Additionally, the Sargasso loses quality once it reaches the beach, to value it
In the specific case of the Rivera Maya in the State of Quintana Roo, Mexico, there has been no coordination between authorities and the private sector, to integrate a model that includes its identification in deep waters, capture prior to arrival at the beaches, transport to collection centers and subsequent processing to integrate it into the value chain.
AxisIMA® Activities
AxisIMA® has been working since 2019 on a comprehensive model for the collection and use of Sargasso to integrate it into the value chain. Although despite the critical conditions that are experienced by the strong arrival of Sargasso actually out of control. The future looks promising for the Sargasso industry. AxisIMA® participates in collection activities in shallow areas close to the coast with the allied company MARALIVE SAPI de CV for various hotels in the Riviera Maya. Likewise, it is involved with various actors both in the private initiative and academic institutions in the creation of business models. This for the use of the biomass product of Sargasso, in agricultural, industrial and power generation applications.
Conclusions:
Although to date there are no profitable models to take advantage of Sargasso collection and processing on a large scale, the ongoing applied research predicts a great future for the Sargasso industry and adding it to the value chain of biomass applications.
