What are we doing in Catalonia Hotels & Resorts to preserve the beauty of our beaches?
Let’s start by understanding the situation:
Sargassum or kelp is a type of seaweed that causes no harm to the environment; It comes from an oceanic region known as the Sargasso Sea, which is a more than a million square kilometers length algae concentration located in the Atlantic Ocean near the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico.
Every year, the ocean currents push huge masses of algae straight to the Caribbean sea. Due to climate change caused by global warming, the phenomenon has increased in intensity and duration over the past few years.
Tourists should not worry about this natural phenomenon; asides the bad aspect it gives to the beaches and sometimes an unpleasant odor that may disturb tourists, it has no negative effects on human health.
Although we can not fight nature itself, we must adapt in order to coexist. As you may know, we were recently recognized with the Blue Flag Certification for the beaches of our Dominican Republic Resorts, as we are truly committed to preserving the beaches clean.
Every day, our staff makes a huge effort to collect sargassum from the beaches and bury it. After two months, it will become sand, preserving the extinction of the beach.
Additionally, our Eco-Cat program promotes beach cleaning and encourages guests to join every week and participate collecting garbage and waste from the beach, cause taking care of the planet is everybody’s job.
If you visit our beautiful beaches and experience this phenomenon,(which may last for months) you can enjoy swimming in the sea and sunbathe on the sand without worries. We also invite you to be part of our Eco-Cat campaigns.