Towards enhanced Sargassum monitoring in the Caribbean Sea

Monitoring Sargassum along the coasts of the Greater Caribbean has become essential due to recurrent blooms since 2018, which bring severe ecological, economic, and social impacts that accumulate yearly. Developing an advanced, monitoring platform would enable affected countries to make informed decisions, manage critical zones, and mitigate negative impacts on coastal ecosystems, economies, and public health. In this work, we present the LANOT platform, a new tool for monitoring Sargassum across the Mexican Caribbean and neighboring regions, including Belize, Guatemala, and parts of Honduras. Utilizing Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8/9 satellite imagery, the platform provides data updated every five days and includes interactive features for selecting layers, querying Sargassum imagery by date or raft area, measuring regions, and downloading files in GeoTIFF, GeoJSON, and PNG formats. These interactive tools allow users to create and download custom files for use in their Sargassum management plans. Although the platform faces inherent limitations of satellite remote sensing, it represents a key advancement in monitoring efforts, marking a milestone for Sargassum observation in the region and supporting regional ecosystem management and research.