Sargassum and Oil Spills Monitoring Pilot Project for the Caribbean and Adjacent Regions Workshop, México D.F., México 2 – 4 May, 2018.

Abstract

In recent years, the Caribbean region has faced challenges from oil spills and an influx of floating sargassum seaweed. Large-scale oil spill incidents have included an April 2017 spill at Pointe-à-Pierre, Trinidad and Tobago and a July 2017 oil spill in Kingston Harbor, Jamaica. Illegal dumping of oil-contaminated waste by ships operating in the region is also a common occurrence. An increase in the frequency and volume of sargassum beachings and coastal overabundance has caused another challenge for the region with mats preventing the deployment and retrieval of fishing gear and clogging popular beaches, harbors and bays. Based on the amounts of Sargassum detected in the Central West Atlantic and the Caribbean and in January – April 2018, researchers at the University of South Florida (USF) predict high amounts of Sargassum in Caribbean in coming months. In response to these challenges, a meeting of 40 experts from 15 countries was held in May of this year to discuss sargassum and oil spill monitoring in the Caribbean and Adjacent regions. The participants included representatives from various United Nations entities, academia, governments, private companies and international initiatives. The workshop was organized by IOCARIBE of IOC UNESCO and its Global Ocean Observing System Regional Alliance, IOCARIBE-GOOS, and the GEO Blue Planet Initiative, and hosted by the Ministry of Education of Mexico and Mexico National Council of Sciences. The overarching goal of the workshop was to develop a plan for the development of a region-wide system for monitoring and forecasting oil spills and sargassum presence. At the workshop, experts reviewed the existing technologies and challenges for monitoring and forecasting oil spills and sargassum in the Caribbean and adjacent regions and ultimately drafted a plan to create an information system based on existing efforts. It was determined that the objective of the information service will be to provide a publicly available monitoring platform and alerting system for oil spills and sargassum based on publically available data (e.g. satellite data and in situ data from countries with open data sharing policies). The service will initially be based on existing technologies and activities, working to augment and improve the framework for information management and delivery and mechanisms for the region and demonstrate the utility of ocean observations and products. It was agreed that the initial development of the service would be done by partner organizations, and the NOAA CoastWatch program and the Caribbean Marine Atlas volunteered to host service components initially. The long-term goal is to have the information service coordinated and built upon by a regional body in a model similar to that of the International Tsunami Information Centre.