Top Playa del Carmen Beach to Stay Closed for Sargassum Cleanup

Playa El Recodo, a popular beach in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, will remain closed for the foreseeable future because of the continued arrival of sargassum at the beach.

Playa del Carmen Mayor Lili Campos made the announcement last week, according to Riviera Maya News, and a sign was placed in front of the beach alerting visitors that it is closed. There is currently no timetable to reopen the beach, despite the continued efforts from the private and public sectors to clean up the beach.

According to Riviera Maya News, El Recodo, Punta Esmeralda, and the areas of 14^th street to 12^th street are most affected by the sargassum.

“The El Recodo area is most affected by the massive arrival of sargassum in [Playa del Carmen],” Mayor Campos wrote last week. “Public services personnel and machinery work permanently to contain the macroalgae.”

La zona del Recodo es la más afectada por el arribo masivo de sargazo en #PlayadelCarmen. Personal de Servicios Públicos y maquinaria trabajan de manera permanente en la contención de la macroalga. Los invito a sumarse a las brigadas de limpieza: https://t.co/kEEQJsV7de pic.twitter.com/oRw5TvLy0J

— Lili Campos (@LiliCamposM) April 8, 2022

Multiple groups dedicated time at the beach last week to collect sargassum, including one of 700 local and city hall staff that helped remove around 100 tons of sargassum from some of the most affected beaches. There’s also a new program for those with minor offenses to sign up for seaweed removal duty instead of paying fines for their “administrative offenses” in Playa del Carmen.

“Currently in Solidaridad by committing an administrative offense you can collect sargassum as community work,” Mayor Campos wrote last week. Today we had offending citizens cleaning Recodo beach. Together we go against sargassum!”

This is not the first time El Recodo has faced issues because of the overwhelming amount of sargassum on its beachfront—similar issues have come every spring and summer for the last few years, including major issues in 2019 and 2021.

Riviera Maya, the resort district south of Cancun that includes Playa del Carmen, just wrapped Semana Santa 2022, the name for the Holy Week that ends on Easter Sunday. According to Mayor Campos, the region expected to receive more than 550,000 tourists during the week from April 10 to April 16.