Metric tons flowing through the tropical Atlantic in 2025. Source: NOAA, CariCOOS.
Projected to exceed 2025 records. Puerto Rico's eastern and southern shores face another record-breaking season. Source: CariCOOS seasonal forecast.
Sand fraction eliminated by nearshore interception versus beach raking, preserving biomass purity for processing partners.
All figures sourced from NOAA Coastal Science Program, CariCOOS Sargassum Early Warning System, and Puerto Rico Executive Order 2025-037. Reclaim Nature reports only verified data to regulatory and public audiences.
Sargassum mat in active beach deposition at a Puerto Rico coastal site. Wave action continues delivering new biomass ashore throughout the peak season of April through October. Photo: Pexels.
A January 2026 study published in Caribbean Journal projects sargassum blooms could cost Puerto Rico $782 million or more annually when total economic losses across tourism, fishing, real estate, and public health are fully accounted for. Reclaim Nature's offshore interception model is designed to reduce this burden permanently, not manage it reactively season after season.
Sources: Caribbean Journal, September and December 2025. DNER Section 309 PRCZMP FY26-30, March 2026. Periodismo Investigativo, July 2021 and March 2023. News is My Business, 2026 economic projection reporting. CariCOOS Sargassum Early Warning System. EPA American Rescue Plan coastal protection grants. DPNR USVI Sargassum Blueprint 2023.
Early offshore interception is the only approach that prevents decomposition, protects marine habitats, and delivers usable biomass. Everything else manages the damage after it has already occurred.
| Method | Status in Puerto Rico 2023 to 2026 | What Worked | Key Limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Offshore Booms and Barriers | Deployed at private marinas including Palmas del Mar and Fajardo priority areas | Effectively traps sargassum before beach landfall when properly maintained | High cost, permitting complexity involving DNER, USACE, and NMFS delays deployment. Reclaim Nature is solving this directly. |
| Mechanical Removal with Tractors and Backhoes | DNER deployed 6 beach rake tractors using ARPA funds in 2023 | Removes large volumes from high-priority tourism beaches | Causes sand erosion, damages turtle nesting sites, restricted at ecologically sensitive areas by DNER 2023 protocol. |
| Manual Beach Labor | Applied continuously across coastal municipalities | Maintains aesthetic quality for tourism and residents | Labor-intensive, expensive, does not prevent hydrogen sulfide release or reef and seagrass contamination. |
| DNER Sargassum Removal Vessel | One vessel deployed, tasked to Las Croabas Bay among other sites | Provides offshore collection capability in priority zones | Single vessel insufficient for 44 affected municipalities. Reclaim Nature coordinates directly with DNER vessel operations at Las Croabas. |
| Landfill Material Transfer | Applied when no processing alternative available | Removes material from coastline | Unsustainable. Puerto Rico landfill capacity cannot absorb peak bloom volumes. Creates secondary environmental impacts. Source: Science Direct 2024. |
| Federal Grant Funding, EPA $477K and NOAA ARPA | Active 2023 to 2026 | Provides critical funding for emergency response activities | Insufficient scale relative to $100M+ annual economic losses. Reactive rather than preventive. |
| Sargassum Management Prioritization Index, SMPI | Developed by Sea Grant Puerto Rico | Maps impact areas and helps prioritize response zones | Research tool only. Does not provide operational infrastructure. |
Reclaim Nature does not compete with DNER, NOAA, EPA, or municipal cleanup programs. We provide the permanent offshore interception infrastructure that all of these programs have identified as the most effective intervention and none has been able to deploy at scale due to permitting complexity and capital requirements. We are the operational implementation arm that Puerto Rico's sargassum response ecosystem has been missing.
NOAA Coastal Science Program, Sargassum Response Puerto Rico, 2025. EPA, Planning and Managing Sargassum Inundation Events Guide. Periodismo Investigativo, July 2021 and March 2023. DNER Sargassum Management Protocol, 2023. Sea Grant Puerto Rico, Sargassum Management Prioritization Index. Science Direct, Marine Policy, Sargassum management review, 2024. Caribbean Fishery Management Council, Sargassum presentation, 2023. Invest Puerto Rico and Newlab, Sargassum valorization initiative, 2025. The Hill, Sargassum 2026 season forecast.
CariCOOS, the Caribbean Coastal Ocean Observing System, operates Puerto Rico's Sargassum Early Warning System, integrating MODIS and VIIRS satellite imagery, HYCOM ocean current models, and HF radar surface current observations to track sargassum mats across the tropical Atlantic and Caribbean. CariCOOS publishes seasonal forecasts, weekly bloom-position bulletins, and short-range arrival alerts that Puerto Rico's emergency management, municipalities, and DNER rely on to anticipate inundation events. Reclaim Nature integrates CariCOOS bulletins directly into its operational planning cycle to time boom deployment, vessel staging, and biomass transport with incoming sargassum pulses.
NOAA's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science is actively funding improved sargassum detection and predictive modeling for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands through 2026, including higher-resolution satellite imagery at individual beach scale and short-term forecast models for sargassum transport. These advances will directly improve Reclaim Nature's ability to pre-position boom infrastructure before major sargassum arrivals, reducing response time and increasing interception effectiveness.
Source: NOAA NCCOS and University of South Florida Optical Oceanography Lab, 2025. USF College of Marine Science sargassum monitoring program.
Real-time satellite monitoring, ocean current modeling, and the marine biology of sargassum inundation events.
This page is under construction. Detailed content coming soon.
Reclaim Nature's operational model is grounded in peer-reviewed Caribbean sargassum research. The following studies and monitoring systems directly inform our site selection, permitting strategy, and operational protocols.
León-Pérez et al., Marine Policy, 2024. Open Access.
Identifies permitting complexity as the primary barrier to offshore boom deployment in Puerto Rico. Co-developed a regulatory flowchart with DNER and agency representatives. Directly informs Reclaim Nature's USACE and DNER permitting pathway.
Read paper →León-Pérez, Reisinger, Gibeaut, Science of the Total Environment, 2023.
Identified three sargassum accumulation hotspots in Puerto Rico using satellite monitoring and Google Earth Engine. Informs Reclaim Nature's site prioritization and CariCOOS monitoring integration.
Read paper →Jin, Wang, Dalton, ScienceDirect, 2025.
Multi-sector economic impact modeling of sargassum events across nine regions including Puerto Rico. Quantifies losses across tourism, fishing, real estate, and coastal infrastructure. Provides the economic foundation for Reclaim Nature's case to government and funders.
Read paper →Research references are provided for informational purposes. All papers are independently authored and published. Reclaim Nature does not claim endorsement from any research institution or individual author.
