I recommend reminding your tourists that this is a part of the natural (and beautiful) ecology of the Caribbean. Heck, get somebody to show everyone all the critters that eat it. Catering to tourists doesn't have to be ecologically expensive.

Thanks Daniel and Gema. I´m aware that a public campaign must be done in order to educate tourist operators and beach goers. Stacking sounds good but I need information about the time that stranded Sargassum takes to dry, for example. Someone knows if the practice of bury it in the sand impacts turtles nesting (considering that the nesting season is closing)??

We get a seasonal pulse of sargassum on the beaches of the Florida Panhandle. In Pensacola, FL, the barrier island is under different jurisdictions.  a relatively small public beach is cleaned (litter from beach goers, wrack washing in including sargassum), but the rest is left to nature.  Curiously most every year there are complaints and it is treated as if some catastrophic event, but the solution has been designated use zones, so those who want just a sand box to lay in can go to the cleaned beach.

Thanks Richard. Here is treated as a catastrophic event or so. Here is a picture of the situation

We had a big year in the Virgin Islands as well, and everyone always freaks out about it. The local newspaper actually contacted us about it, and ran a really nice article reminding everyone that it's natural, and although it may smell bad, it will be gone soon.

Thanks, and Good Luck Frank.

by the way, if it is removed it will make good mulch- no weed seeds and rich in micronutrients from the sea- sounds like a local business opportunity :)

It can be used for preparation of organic fertilizer, and presently a company in India is doing this.

Thanks to all. Another question: when used for organic fertilizer, a desalination treatment is needed? 

Here is an article you might be interested in:

Williams and Feagin, 2010. Sargassum as a Natural Solution to Enhance Dune Plant Growth. Environmental Management.

They found that dune systems were responding better to unwashed Sargassum material than to some washed and desalinated Sargassum. They suggest it may be better not to wash or desalinate the wrack if you plan on using it for the marine environment (including dunes). However, I would assume desalination is needed for crop enrichment or any terrestrial ecosystem. 

It may be a good solution in your case to displace the Sargassum material to dunes on adjacent beaches (those that do not need to be squeaky clean for tourists), which is still better than just raking and disposing of all the Sargassum...

Thanks Alizée and Paul. Paul unfortunately there´s no historic record for Sargassum wrack, at least no available information on this issue. I think the first step is to aware local authorities and tourist operators. Undoubtedly a research program is needed.

Dear Dr  Frank, If  the  sargassum  quantity  is considerable  and regular these washed ashore  biomass  can be collected  and utilized for Alginate  extraction. Lest  these can be    mulched   as manure  for crops  after a  wash to remove salt

Yes of course these washed algal sample is rich in salt but considerable amount of salt is also required for improving the soil fertility to improve the crop enrichment.........

There have been a number of related reports of large inundations of Pelagic Sargassum in not only the Caribbean, but also West Africa (Grass-Sessay 2015; Schell et al. 2015).

 A conference on the problem Pelagic Sargassum was held in 2015 at The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, and is available on Youtube; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ydd3sDpmocI#t=1654

 We, in the Algal Biotechnology Group at the University of Greenwich, are researching methods of exploiting another ‘invasive’ Sargassum in the UK, Sargassum muticum (Milledge et al. 2015a; Milledge et al. 2015b; Milledge and Harvey 2016).

 Grass-Sessay SA (2015) Concept Note on the Invasion of Pelagic Sargassum in West Africa. United Nations Environment Programme, Ivory Coast

Milledge JJ, Harvey PJ (2016) Ensilage and anaerobic digestion of Sargassum muticum J Appl Phycol:1-10 doi:10.1007/s10811-016-0804-9

Milledge JJ, Nielsen BV, Bailey D (2015a) High-value products from macroalgae: the potential uses of the invasive brown seaweed, Sargassum muticum Rev Environ Sci Biotechnol 15:67-88 doi:10.1007/s11157-015-9381-7

Milledge JJ, Staple A, Harvey P (2015b) Slow Pyrolysis as a Method for the Destruction of Japanese Wireweed, Sargassum muticum Environment and Natural Resources Research 5:28-36 doi:10.5539/enrr.v5n1p28

Schell JM, Goodwin DS, Siuda ANS (2015) Recent Sargassum Inundation Events in the Caribbean Shipboard Observations Reveal Dominance of a Previously Rare Form Oceanography 28:8-10 doi:10.5670/oceanog.2015.70

Many thanks John

Its been four years this this question was posted, we still don't have solid answers. At the time, conversion to mulch or fertilizer seemed a reasonable solution, but with the growing spotlight on the potential for heavy metal content present in Sargassum wrack, it is beginning to look like that won't work... at least not without regular chemical/elemental analyses. With all due respect to Dr. Milledge, who made these same points in his 2016 paper, the costs of rinsing (i.e. desalinizing) combined with chemical testing may reduce the feasibility of "valorisation" for developing nations, at least for uses that pose health risks for humans and livestock.

Extraction of sodium alginate is the best option to utilize the wrack of Sargassum and the sludge can be used as potting mixture and for soil amelioration after neutralizing the pH.

We have just started a project in this area after receiving funding from Darwin Plus, DPLUS100 Sustainable solutions for Sargassum inundations in Turks & Caicos

http://www.darwininitiative.org.uk/assets/uploads/Darwin-Plus-Round-7-Results-FINAL.pdf.

Very Good. Expect more output especially products from the inundated sargassum biomass.