How bad is the sargassum seaweed problem in Barbados?

Question

I’m holidaying in Barbados with my family at the end of February/early March 2023. We’re staying at Crane Beach in St Philip, a world-renowned stretch of white sands. In recent years sargassum seaweed has been a huge problem there, despite best efforts to clear it.

I read on https://www.nationnews.com/2023/01/03/seaweed-back-shores/ that mounds of seaweed started piling up earlier than normal, at the start of the new year.

I’ve been to Barbados before and seen Crane Beach at its best so I guess I can cope with the disappointment if it’s not as stunning as I remember it, but it’s a first (and probably one-time only) visit for the rest of my family, so I was really hoping the influx wouldn’t be too bad during our holiday.

Has anyone visited the Crane area of Barbados very recently? I understand that the volume of seaweed deposits comes and goes with the tides and weather so the extent of the problem is hard to predict, but in general is Feb/Mar likely to be a bad time?

Answer 1

Answering my own question:

Seaweed accumulation was fairly minimal at our resort on the east coast when we arrived. It got noticeably worse during the second week of our stay, and unfortunately for the hotel their seaweed-clearing tractor seemed to be out of action, so efforts to shift the deposits by hand couldn’t really deal with the volume. The hotel set up a free daily transfer for guests to a west coast beach a few miles away, where there were virtually no seaweed deposits.

Have to say though that the Crane is such a fabulous location to stay the chance of a seaweed problem would not put me off from returning.