'Nightmare': Stinky seaweed smothers French Caribbean beaches
Jose Viator was hoping tourists would flock to his beachside bar on the French archipelago of Guadeloupe, but he has been forced to close because of stinky brown seaweed.
"It's a nightmare," the 61-year-old said.
The pristine sand and turquoise Caribbean waters of his coastal village are usually a magnet for tourists at this time of year.
But a thick carpet of potentially toxic sargassum algae has washed up on the beach of Capesterre, filling the air with the smell of rotten eggs as it decomposes and keeping visitors at bay.
It is just one part of the Caribbean to have tackled excessive seaweed influx in recent years, in a phenomenon that has been linked to pollution and global warming.
More than a third of the sargassum washing up in Guadeloupe over the past 12 years has landed in Viator's village.
"We make a living from tourism, but we're forced to close several months a year" because of the stench, he said.
The fumes also damage nearby houses and other property by eating away at metal, but insurance companies will not reimburse the damage, he said.
A digger plowed up and down the beach nearby, scooping up clumps of the rotting seaweed so that a truck could ferry them away.
A thick carpet of potentially toxic sargassum algae has washed up in Capesterre, filling the air with the smell of rotten eggs.