A groundbreaking partnership between Barbadian and Canadian researchers could revolutionise the island’s response to the annual sargassum crisis, with scientists developing advanced technology to predict and intercept the masses of sargassum seaweed before it invades beaches, marine life, and the economy, the experts said Thursday.
The Rapid Sargassum Modelling (RSM) initiative is the result of the collaboration of University of Calgary computer scientist Professor Mario Costa Sousa and University of the West Indies at Cave Hill renewable energy lecturer Dr Legena Henry. Dr Henry is currently pioneering the production of biofuels from a mixture of sargassum and agricultural waste.
At the end of a field trip to Consett Bay, St Philip—where a large mat of sargassum has blanketed the coastline—Professor Sousa disclosed that the project will equip UWI scientists with an early warning system for approaching sargassum, allowing the weed to be collected out at sea.
The team used a drone to map out the quantity of sargassum at Consett Bay to be analysed in the UWI laboratory on Friday.
“I am really here to discuss the one year of planning and writing the science we want to develop together to help to mitigate the problem of sargassum, creating new computational tools involving a bit of graphics, visualisation, [artificial intelligence] to really help to develop tools to predict sargassum expansion, where it’s going to land, to really try to mitigate it,” he told Barbados TODAY, after leading a local team of university science graduates who are being trained to take the venture forward.
“And that [mitigation] will also involve use of drones and different technologies to help with that… but also mapping the coral reefs of Barbados, using submarine drones, and similar technologies will be employed for sargassum modelling.
“This technology will also allow us to monitor the geological formations of the island for mitigating natural disasters. So, essentially, better planning, understanding erosion behaviours on the island… erosion in general. You can encompass all that in environmental modelling that involves sargassum, coral reefs and geology.”
He also addressed the impact which the seaweed will have on Barbados over time, once it reaches land and is allowed to accumulate.
“The danger here is that, not only will it affect the coral reefs, but also health, fisheries, the tourism industry… because it’s a problem you cannot currently predict where it’s going to land,” Professor Sousa said. “And once it lands on the beaches and on the coasts, then it’s a big problem. So, the main disaster here is economics; health, because the sargassum is bringing heavy metals—the deterioration creates poisonous materials. It is not good for humans, it is not good for the economy because it pollutes; and that’s the main aspect that we are trying to mitigate.”
The RSM initiative is a long-term, multidisciplinary effort which will be rolled out in phases, the Canadian computer scientist said.
“The problem will be addressed or solved in steps. It is hard to predict when, but given the nature of how the research goes from fundamental to applied and tested, we can estimate that in three years, we can have people already using the tools and having some positive impact,” he said.
“The advantage is… you test in Barbados and in Antigua and Barbuda, you can basically then expand the solution to other parts of the Caribbean or other parts of the world.”
He said the plan now is to move forward with the project by establishing proposals and sponsorships and recruiting students.
As a result, the professor said he will be returning to Barbados regularly.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
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