What is the current situation regarding the sargassum barriers four years on?
Another season has come and gone, bringing with it its share of strandings, and the deflector nets that have been promised time and again have still not been installed. Fortunately, Météo-France is forecasting a slowdown in the rafts’ progress and, soon, counter-currents that will push them back towards West Africa.
In September 2022, the first ‘Sargassum’ steering committee was set up. At a press conference, the Prefecture and the Collectivité announced the ‘installation, on a trial basis’ for May 2023, before the start of the season, of barrier nets in Cul-de-Sac Bay and Embouchure Bay. At the same press conference, the authorities also stated that the territory would be equipping itself with automated fixed sensors, installed along the affected coastlines, to continuously monitor sulphur hydrogen emissions. Since then, time has passed and, with it, the sargassum has washed ashore. It was only at the COPIL meeting in October 2025 that the diversion barriers at Cul-de-Sac and Étang aux Poissons were approved for a contract worth €1 million. The installation of this infrastructure had therefore been announced for May–June of this year, just before the peak of the season. But in May, the Collectivité postponed the installation until early July. In the end, the nets did not arrive on the island until mid-July. At a press conference on 31 July, a new promise was made and a further delay announced: the installation of the two sections, measuring 180 m and 520 m, in Cul-de-Sac Bay will take place in August, followed by the deployment of a second net at the mouth of the Étang aux Poissons in Quartier d’Orléans in September. August has come and gone… the nets are still not in Cul-de-Sac Bay. Installation was on hold pending an anchorage ban order, which was only published by the Collectivité on 29 August. Boaters have until 11 September to move their vessels.
