Members of the Mexican navy remove sargassum along the shore of Puerto Morelos, Mexico (Fernando Llano/AP)Huge quantities of seaweed are covering the beaches and coastlines of the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, suffocating shorelines and snuffing out marine life and deterring visitors in areas that depend heavily on tourism. Some 27 million metric tons of self-sustaining sargassum have been recorded in the Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico in July, according to a report on Friday from the University of South Florida’s Optical Oceanography Laboratory. The Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt has been growing since 2011, dumping an increasing amount of seaweed along coastlines in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. Antonio Garcia watches over his grandson on a beach blanketed with sargassum in Playa del Carmen, Mexico (Fernando Llano/AP) (Fernando Llano/AP Photo/Fernando Llano)Much of the record sargassum reported last year ended up along Puerto Rico’s coastline, prompting the governor to declare a state of emergency. It surpassed the previous record set in 2022 with a peak of some 22 million metric tons.