The problem is in the form of a fluffy brown slimy carpet on the fine white sand of Granada. About 15 years ago, almost no one in this small Caribbean island state had heard of sargassum, even though it has always been at the bottom of the seas in necessary and manageable quantities. When the beaches began to be invaded by mountains of these algae for several months a year, the urgency was to collect this residue that makes tourists flee, impoverishes local communities and causes damage to local ecosystems and health problems, due to the toxic fumes produced by its decomposition. According to satellite images published by scientific publications, at the beginning of June of this year, approximately 38 million tons of sargassum floated towards the Caribbean coast, a record number. Year after year the volume of algae increases reflecting the global climate imbalance. The increase in ocean temperature and the amount of nutrients, mainly from human activities such as agriculture or untreated sewage, have largely caused this massive proliferation. “But states like Grenada do not cause any of this: we do not contribute to the increase in temperature nor are we responsible for the agricultural waste that generates this pollution,” says Jane Nurse, a consultant who works for the local government in order to draw up a plan to collect and reuse sargassum. For about five years, the challenge of the authorities of this tiny country of 110,000 inhabitants has been to turn the problem into an opportunity for companies and a source of work. To do this, they need innovative ideas, millions of euros and the participation of local communities. «There was more and more seaweed, for more months of the year. Instead of sinking them back into the sea or letting them rot on beaches where no one wants to go anymore, we are trying to take advantage of them. We are at a really important turning point,» says Nurse, in an interview with this newspaper. Cosmetics, fertilizers, fuel, construction materials and other even more innovative and unexpected products have been taking shape for some time now. a couple of years. The authorities of Grenada launched a call to receive concrete proposals on what to do with sargassum and at this moment they have about 30 projects on the table. “In the coming months, we will refine the selection and launch different financing mechanisms to apply these solutions,” explains Nurse. The expert wants to believe that sargassum, indirectly, can provoke some type of awareness or action against climate change. «Because it is there, it is visible, concrete and annoying. It is not talking about global warming in the abstract,» he says.
European money
During this process, not only the authorities and experts from Granada have sat around the table. Since 2023, the European Union’s Global Gateway investment initiative has brought together local governments, private capital, academics and entrepreneurs in several states affected by sargassum to find sustainable and viable solutions when collecting, processing and selling the seaweed and guaranteeing the financing and technical knowledge necessary to carry out these ideas. “No one was bringing everyone together to find a solution,” a European source present at these meetings tells EL PAÍS. The European initiative has focused above all on small States like Grenada, which need more support to collect the seaweed because unlike larger countries, there are no large hotels that can finance it, as is the case in Mexico, for example. «In 2023, the first question we asked our partners is if they could have fresh sargassum. Because there are companies that want it directly from the sea and these small States do not have the capacity to do this ocean collection and they limit themselves to cleaning it when it reaches the beaches,» these Brussels sources detail.
We need to harvest it before it reaches the beach because the danger it represents is real. For example, sargassum that rots in the sand can affect the development of a fetus and also affects asthmatic patientsJane Nurse, consultant to the Government of Grenada
domino effect
In October, the third EU-Caribbean meeting on sargassum was held in Brussels and Grenada, the Dominican Republic and Mexico committed to harvesting at least 660,000 tonnes of sargassum between 2026 and 2027. Of this total, Grenada committed to 10,000 tonnes, Mexico 500,000 and the Dominican Republic 150,000. The ways to collect sargassum, on the beach or in the sea, store it and process it will depend on the use to which it is going to be given. «That’s why we ask for concrete proposals for each of these steps. Tell us what you want to do and how and we can bring capital to support you, but we need to know how much it costs to start all this,» explains the European source. «We need to harvest it before it reaches the beach because the danger it represents is real. For example, sargassum that rots in the sand can affect the development of a fetus and also affects asthmatic patients,» says Nurse. “All of this is happening coinciding with a rise in sea level, which means that in states like Grenada, we have fewer ways to cushion the arrival of sargassum,” he adds. Mari Granström, founder and president of the company Origin by Ocean, was one of the entrepreneurs who was at the Brussels meeting on sargassum last October. This Finnish chemist left her job at a large multinational to create her own firm, which is dedicated to extracting chemicals from sargassum in the Caribbean, convinced that the damage caused by the algae can be rebalanced by the potential it has. “Our plan is for our first biorefinery to begin working in 2027 in Finland and then open another four in the Caribbean,” she explained to this newspaper in an interview in Brussels. In October they presented their first facial serum made with chemicals extracted from the Caribbean. sargassum, marketed by a Finnish brand. The uses of the chemicals that this firm extracts will also be sold to other companies that will use them in textile, hair and home products. «But in Europe we are very slow. We tend to talk about problems and we are not seeing this great opportunity, because we lack the understanding of how to build these value chains,» laments Granström. The goal is that by the next EU-Caribbean conference on sargassum, in 2026, in Mexico, the ability to collect and sell the seaweed in places like Grenada will be a reality. The cooperation projects are expanding and in October, Global Gateway already began similar cooperation processes with Saint Kitts and Nevis and Saint Martin, two small Caribbean States affected by the same problem. “There is a very positive domino effect,” celebrate European sources.
We want to take our technology to the Caribbean and launch biorefineries, but training the inhabitants of the area so that they can run them and the income reaches the place where the sargassum comes fromMari Granström, president of Origin by Ocean
With local communities
In the case of Granada, local authorities will choose the solutions and they will be co-financed. “Because it is impossible to attract investment from companies for projects like this from the start. It is too risky,” add the Brussels sources. Nurse draws three main lines in these proposed solutions: The first is for the agricultural sector in the form of fertilizers, biostimulants or compost. The second is the production of energy through pyrolysis, for example, and another is the production of cosmetics, through chemicals extracted from sargassum, such as alginate and fucoidan, just as Granström does. Granström emphasizes that in these processes it is very important that local communities «are not just the people who harvest sargassum for European firms.» «That is not what we want to build. We want to take our technology to the Caribbean and launch biorefineries, but training the inhabitants of the area so that they can run them and the income reaches the place where the sargassum comes from,» he adds. For this Finnish entrepreneur, it may be the way for small Caribbean states to “go from the local to the global.” “And at the same time, reduce their dependence on tourism income,” he concludes.
