International Sargassum Conference, Guadeloupe 2019 : a first analyse

From 23 to 26 October Regional Council of Guadeloupe wants to be the convergent point of know-how and techniques for mitigating Sargassum algae effects through the organization of the international conference financed by the European program of regional cooperation InterReg Caraïbe.

The objectives of this conference were presented during the steering committee set up on April 16, 2016 are

better understand the Sargassum phenomenon at the Caribbean level;
share experiences in collection, processing and recovery of algae;
sign on the international political agenda issues of massive sargassum invasion.

The answer to the first point can only come from research and technological innovations. This objective therefore requires a real investment in competent human resources.

The second point raises the question of the effectiveness of methods already tested, all of which have major drawbacks which considerably aggravate the environmental resource. The current level of knowledge is too limited to assess medium and long-term consequences.

The third point, on the other hand, is a pious wish. How politically collaborate to mitigate a phenomenon whose origins and modes of growth, spatial and temporal distribution, are as poorly known. The absence of boundaries and natural barriers when pelagic algae is advected makes it necessary to regulate invasion situations at local scales. The hope of have a turnkey solution rests solely on the convictions of predatory vendors.

A first analysis

Fig. 1: Distribution of subjects in hourly amount during the International Conference Sargassum2019 in Guadeloupe, FWI

The planning for the international conference was unveiled last week (week # 36). Without access to the detailed program, a quantitative analysis can be conducted nevertheless to understand the essence of this conference.

During the four days of that event, we can note the large number of communication actions with the public screening of a documentary , a televised debate, a public debate and a press conference with a total duration of 5h52 min (2h30min + 1h30min + 1h + 52min).

The state of knowledge, reserved to the first day is limited to 3h15min, coffee break included. The rest of the day is planned for the TV debate and presentation of the projects selected for the Sargassum call for projects .

Experience sharing of Friday, October 25th 2019 seems more provided spread over 4h30min, leaving the best place to the case of the Dominican Republic and Mexico, where their main issues are the preservation of sites operated by the tourism industry (>8 M of visitors for 2018 in Quintana Roo -Mexican state- and >6.5 M to Dominican Republic). The rest of the day is reserved for presentation of funding opportunities and the public debate.

The last day dealt with the cooperation to fight sargassum and international strategies during almost 3 hours. We hope that this morning will allow states and territories which are all concurrent in tourism, fishing and marine mining resources, to take stock of the situation put theirs differences other side and share their human resources and knowledges. Announced presence of the Prime ministry of the French Republic, Édouard Philippe, should not change nothing. Despite the Paris Agreement France are doing little choice in favour of nature and public health.

Conclusion

This succinct analysis gives a vision of the objectives of this conference, unfortunately far from the TCGNRG vision and possibly of the resolution of this situation.

It should be remembered what the named Sargassum crisis is in fact an imbalance of nutriments (nitrogen, phosphorus, etc.) across the Atlantic and most of the coastal area which promote the growth of algae. We must noted that during their pelagic phase the growth and reproduction (by cuttings) rates of Sargassum algae is not stopped.

To this imbalance one must added a structural and intellectual incapacity to rethink the management of organic matter in an overly industrialized environmental system.

24 August 201912 September 2019

Remarkable Sites and Stranding of Sargassum : the dangerous Door of Hell (Porte d’Enfer)

Sargassum (Sargassum fluitans and natans) have been the main species of visible pelagic floating algae since 2011, stranded on the Caribbean coast. Their stranding are strongly influenced by sea currents and configuration of the coastlines (human making included). Arrival of dense or scattered rafts causes ecological disturbances because of the quantity of organic matter (composed by carbon C, hydrogen H, Oxygen O, Nitrogen N, Phosphorus P and sulphur S) which it brings and the speed of stranding. Rafts of Sargassum move under effects of wind, waves, sea currents and tide. They are home to a wide variety of plankton, fish and shellfish colonies. Sargassum oxygen needs coupled with the poor quality of shallow coastal waters cause asphyxiation and anoxic decomposition -fermentation- generating toxic gases such as hydrogen sulphide (H2S), ammonia (NH3), thiols (R -SH) but also greenhouse gases such as methane (CH4).

These processes of decomposition without oxygen are the subject of many controversies, health, economic and ecological crises. The solutions adopted in the French West Indies are mechanized pickups and emergency dredging, causing extensive destruction of beaches and harbours. The concentrations of two of the most toxic gases (H2S & NH3) are controlled so that populations can be evacuated if there is a risk. Despite measured rates of more than 10ppm H2S (Limit Value-Short-Term Exposure VLCT) no evacuation has been done since 2011.

Remarkable sites

Many beaches are considered to be remarkable sites. They attract many visitors and constitute the tourism potential of our developing countries. The presence of sargassum causes degradation of bathing water quality, landscape potential and air quality. These sites, which are highlighted and exploited by the tourism industry, offer significant profitability due to the lack of maintenance required to date.

The management of these sites is mostly complex and is pooling of many stakeholders, but this can not in any case justify their long-term pollution.

Porte-d-Enfer Beach

The range of Porte-d-Enfer (16.48 ° N, 61.44 ° W) in Anse-Bertrand (known as the Trou à Man Coco) has been known for the last years of numerous massive sargassum stranding massive (see photo) provoking the fact of its geographical configuration the partial or complete blockage of the creek and a thick layer (more than 15 cm in height) of decomposed compacted algae. Under favourable conditions the production of bio-gases takes place on the whole column of wet Sargassum. It can be observed by the presence of bubbles (under columns shape) or by the dispersion of biofilms of sulpho-reducing bacteria greyish colour on the surface.

In these cases of mass stranding (example September 2018, January and July 2019) swimming is impossible and dangerous for health. The presence in the zone (up to 500m) of the basin is risky because the production of biogas is important, non-homogeneous and highly variable. The temperature of the water favours the production of hydrogen sulphide (H2S) and ammonia (NH3) during the sunniest hours of the day (9am-5pm) and therefore the risk during periods of affluence. Time variations such as wind failure or pressure drops favour high concentrations.

Cleaning – mitigating the effects of stranding

The site is naturally cleaned during the phases of strong increase of swell which warranty a ebb of the organic matter and the re-oxygenation of the basin.

The rainy season lets in the mouth which encourages the ebb and feeding of the sand beach.

The mechanized methods of collection are put in place by the municipality and the services of the French State are only for small quantity stranded algae. An attempt to set up a floating dam was a failure. Collection with crawler excavator help to strongly damaged the beach and nearby roads as well as pollution from petroleum products (see image of a tractor-excavator).

Manual cleaning stay the more efficient and ecologically respectful of the site, but unfortunately it is not set up.

Protection of populations

There have been 22 surveys of H2S and NH3 since 2018 with 15-minute portable measurements. No measures have indicated overtaking of the limit values for exposure, the maximum values recorded are 1.9 ppm for H2S (24/04/2018) and 36 ppm for NH3 (28/05/2018). We can question the validity of these measures when we know that the potential area of biogas production in case of total coverage is 14,000m2 while stranding areas producing biogas is rarely greater than 5,000m2 in Guadeloupe (case of the fishing port of Capesterre-Belle-Eau). Comments made by users in the area confirm this question.

Nevertheless, these measurements are much higher than the chronic and sub-chronic exposure limits of 0.02 ppm for H2S and 0.714 ppm for NH3 [HCSP 08/06/2018]. The sub-chronic exhibition is an exhibition of one to several months which was the case between March and July 2018 according to the statements published by the ARS Guadeloupe (i.e., Regional Health Agency).

Two last values of H2S measured Thursday, July 18, 2019 and Monday, August 12th 2019 reach respectively 5.2 and 4.2 pm which are alert values (>5 ppm) for workers in French Labour Law.

No signboard is visible to alert passers-by (and tourists) of the health risks during periods of beaching and fumes of toxic gas. Without knowledge of the site, many passers-by, children and the elderly, admire the stranding without taking into account the serious health risk.

In the case of the crisis of green algae (Ulva aka sea-lettuce) of Brittany it took nearly ten years, dead wild boars, horses, dogs and several joggers before appearing on the beaches of official information boards.

It is therefore urgent to recognize that human health is worth more than the reputation (or image) of a tourist site. It is essential that the authorities protect people and tourists by intelligently informing about the non-permanent risk of stranding sargassum. This is particularly true for territories that rely on sustainable tourism development.

The Caribbean Geophysics and Numerical Research Group (TCGNRG) remains at your disposal to assist you (communities, collection companies and individuals) to secure the best places taking into account environmental conditions.

Last update (9/07/2019)

Municipal decree 8/20/2019
Display area of the decree

Since 20 August 2019 a municipal decree (see photo above) prohibits all nautical activities. This first plain decision of common sense is to be commended. But despite all the poor visibility of the display and the lack of pictogram for people who do not read the French prevents to really warn the risks associated with the presence of anoxic decomposing (fermentation) seaweed for more than two months.

At the moment the photos were taken an under water spear fisherman was coming out of the water without noticing the posters

24 August 201922 September 2019

Guadeloupe Sargassum 2019 : International event

From October 23 to 26, Guadeloupe organizes an event on Sargasso at the regional level (America – Caribbean). At eight (8) weeks of this event let’s make a point of situation.

It should be noted that at least two events have already occurred in 2019 on the subject in the Caribbean area :

Cancum, Quitana Roo Meeting on Sargasso, June 27 2019
with the creation of regional network on Sargassum -> International Sargassum Network
Regional Sargassum Forum, Mona Campus, Kingston July 26 2019
Led by Jamaican Ministry of Tourism and the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre (GTRCM)

The limited information available nevertheless allows to know that there will be a trade fair Sargass’Expo aiming to gather exhibitors around of (in order of importance)

remote sensing – prevision;
collection;
recovery;
storage;
and health surveillance.

We may be surprised that the sanitary surveillance is thus misplaced, knowing that the main impact of sargassum is first sanitary with olfactory risks (potential complete loss of smell), ocular, cardiac, respiratory, intestinal, etc. In 2018 in Martinique in 31 weeks more than 8500 consultations related to sargassum emanation were counted by the network of sentinel doctors.

The second event is the international scientific conference Sargassum2019. No information is currently available, only the steering committee was presented in April 15, 2019 . The lack of information (i.e. call for communication) and detailed program questions about its progress and the ability to produce useful information for people (residents, schoolchildren, workers, tourists, etc.) and economic actors impacted (fishermen, restaurateur, hotel keeper, sailing sector).

The third event which is Off of sargassum 2019 is a Caribbean Conference, from 19 to 22 October 2019. It is part of the Caribbean Science and Innovation Meeting. It will benefit the presence of some researchers on topics such as Biodiversity, Health, Natural Hazards, Renewable Energy and the Circular Economy. The latter seems much better organized, may produce very interesting results.
Deadline for registration is 16 September 2019 Contact the University of Antilles (Research Office).

TCGNRG wonders about the usefulness of using public funds to communicate on a subject where very little to any has been made since 2014. The methods used at this time are re-employment, most often come from construction industry in opposition with concepts of nature protection and biodiversity. The common sense might have been to wait until 2020 to organize a real cross-cutting conference on the topic on at least a week, giving scientists time to be really prepared.

Nevertheless, TCGNRG offer to individuals, institutions and government our services to assess, analyse or comment on information, methods and equipment will be presented during this event.

Feel free to contact our service : contact@tcgnrg.com