Belize Battles Worst Sargassum Invasion Yet as PM Considers Emergency Declaration

From coast to coast, Belize is facing what may be considered its most severe sargassum event to date. On the tourism hotspots such as Hopkins, Caye Caulker and San Pedro, thick mats of the foul-smelling seaweed are blanketing the shorelines, overwhelming cleanup crews and swamping the capacity of the two sargassum harvesters currently operating in San Pedro. Prime Minister John Briceño acknowledged the gravity of the situation warning that the government may soon be forced to declare a national emergency in response to the growing environmental and economic crisis. He said that such a move would allow the government to mobilize financing to assist with cleaning efforts. 

John Briceño, Prime Minister of Belize: “Yeah, I think we pretty soon will have to declare that probably a national emergency, be able to move finance to help with the cleaning of the sargassum. It’s no one’s fault, it’s the more developed countries that with the climate change and everything again as always we end up paying that price. So we have been in formal discussions with both the area representative and the Minister for the Blue Economy and the Minister of Tourism Anthony Mahler and quite likely we’re going to discuss that on Tuesday and see what plans we can come up to be able to clean that sargassum.” 

Minister of Disaster Risk Management, Henry Charles Usher, supported the urgency of addressing the situation, pointing out the serious implications for the country’s tourism industry. He stated that while they are working with limited resources, the current focus is on proper disposal of the accumulated seaweed.

Henry Charles Usher, Minister of Public Service and Governance and NEMO: “No, to me it is a natural disaster that we have to look at from all sectors of government. As a matter of fact, yesterday there was the first meeting of the Sargassum Task Force that was established by Cabinet that is chaired by the Minister of Tourism and it brought together different organizations, including Disaster Risk Management to look at how we can mitigate the damage from sargassum not only the environmental damage that the sargassum is causing, but of course the tourism aspect of it where we see the sargassum on the beach causing the area not to be an area that tourists want to visit, et cetera. So this is an all of government approach and I believe that the prime minister is right in saying that this is a disaster we have to look at and it’s going to recur. The last time it was this big was in 2022, but it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen in 2023 and 2024. And this time we have seen huge amounts in ’25 and we can expect to have the same going forward. So we have to have plans in place, strategies in place to mitigate it.  Yes, there are areas where you can turn a sargassum into energy sources, into different material,  but the sargassum comes with a lot of heavy metal, that is really the biggest environmental risk. It comes with lead, cetera,  heavy metals that you have to extract to be able to turn it into whatever you’re going to do. That extraction process is costly. So we have to look at ways in which we can find the resources to be able to do that.  But in the meantime, we have to look at how we’re going to dispose of it, how we’re going to remove it from the areas where they are right now and I do think, going back to the last question, that the Ministry of Tourism or BTB is going to assist the San Pedro Town Council in trying to get some resources to be able to use the, I forget the name of the boats, but to use the boats to go there to do the cleanup.”

As the seaweed continues to pile up, residents, hoteliers, and tour operators are growing increasingly concerned. With tourism contributing significantly to Belize’s economy, the ongoing sargassum influx poses not just an environmental challenge but a direct threat to national revenue and livelihoods.