Mexico's prized beaches threatened by smelly algae invasion

Sargassum seaweed covers the beach in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Wednesday, May 8, 2019. Experts say the presence of sargassum seaweed is the new normal and residents are going to have get used to it. (AP Photo/Victor Ruiz)

Sargassum seaweed floats off the beach in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Wednesday, May 8, 2019. While concepts about what to do with collected sargassum are springing up, some propose using it as an aggregate additive for bricks, but its usefulness as a fertilizer or animal feed is limited by the chemicals it contains, like salt, iodine and arsenic. (AP Photo/Victor Ruiz )

MEXICO CITY – Tourists looking for sun and sand in Mexican resorts like Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Tulum have been disgusted by foul-smelling mounds of sargassum — a seaweed-like algae — piling up on beaches and turning turquoise waters brown, and experts are warning that it may be the new normal.

Mexico's Riviera Maya Caribbean coast provides half the country's tourism revenues and very little sargassum reached it prior to 2014. But a possible combination of climate change, pollution from fertilizers and ocean flows and currents carrying the algae mats to the Caribbean has caused the problem to explode.

Some officials say the vast mats of sargassum filling the Caribbean could be one of the more visible climate-change events because of the sheer number of people who visit the region's beaches.