Tulum's water turns turquoise again as the 2026 sargassum season eases

After one of the heaviest sargassum summers on record, Tulum's public beaches have their colour back: since early September the arrivals have dropped sharply, and the water off Jaguar Park is clear again. The season is not formally over and the crews are still out every morning, but the tally tells its own story: more than 6,500 tonnes lifted off Tulum's beaches this year, and September landings across the state running at about a quarter of August's.

When we looked at the question at the end of July, in The Sargassum Question, and Why Tulum Is Finally Getting Ahead of It, the argument was that this year's response was better organised, not that the problem was smaller. Two months on, the numbers bear out the first half of that, and the calendar is now helping with the second. (Where some of this summer's weed ends up is its own story: Tulum's Seaweed Is Becoming Its Sidewalks.)

What changed in September

On 9 September the director of Tulum's federal beach zone office (Zofemat), David Buchanan García, said the beaches were recovering their natural colours after a marked drop in arrivals over the preceding days. By 17 September the municipality put the year's collection at more than 6,500 tonnes, moved in more than 1,800 container trips to the official disposal site. That is already well past the whole of 2025: by 9 September Tulum had collected more than 5,600 tonnes this year, against a little over 5,000 in all of last year.

The drop is state-wide. Arturo Quintero Díaz, who heads Quintana Roo's beaches authority, Playas y Pozos, reported 1,700 tonnes collected so far in September against 6,684 tonnes in August. On 23 September, fresh images from Jaguar Park showed a beach practically clear of the weed and the water crystalline again.

Who does the work

The cleaning is concentrated on the four public beaches where most people swim: Playa del Pueblo, Jaguar Park, Punta Piedra and Conchitas. Crews start there early every day whatever the day's arrivals, on the mayor's instruction. "The arrival season continues. We have had quiet weeks and others not so quiet; regardless, every day we put all our effort into cleaning from very early," Buchanan said on 21 September. The containers carry weed gathered by Zofemat, the Navy (Semar), the federal protected-areas commission (CONANP) and the hotels, and barriers have been used offshore to hold some of it before it reaches the sand.

One quieter result is the sand itself. In August Buchanan said the beaches of the hotel zone and the national park had kept their width because Zofemat, the Navy and CONANP had cut back on heavy machinery and avoided lifting sand along with the weed. Done badly, sargassum cleaning speeds up erosion; done carefully, it does not.

What this does and does not mean

It does not mean the season is over. Zofemat said on 7 September that the fall in volume did not mark the end of the season or of the cleaning, and conditions can still change within hours with the currents and the wind. Further south, a biologist monitoring the coast warned on 28 September that existing mats near Bacalar Chico could drift into Chetumal Bay. And the summer has cost the town: in early September a beach rental business in Tulum told Uno TV it was running at about 20% of normal, with some hotels planning to reopen in October.

What it does mean is that the pattern of recent years is holding: the weed arrives in spring, peaks through the summer and eases into the autumn, ahead of Tulum's winter high season. Quintana Roo had collected about 110,000 tonnes across the state by mid-August, and the monitoring network expects around 150,000 by year end, so the scale of the problem has not gone away. For anyone visiting this winter, the useful guide is the daily one: the Red de Monitoreo del Sargazo de Quintana Roo publishes a beach-by-beach map, and the crews on Tulum's public beaches are there every morning regardless.

Sources: Zofemat Tulum, statements by David Buchanan García as reported by Reportur, 28 August, 9 September and 21 September 2026, and by Noticaribe, 17 September 2026; Quinta Fuerza, 23 September 2026; Arturo Quintero Díaz, Playas y Pozos Quintana Roo, and biologist María Luisa Villarreal Sonor, as reported by Reportur, 28 September 2026; Uno TV, 2 September 2026. Main image: Esparta, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.