OVER the last two months, thick mats of brown sargassum seaweed smothered parts of Trinidad's coastline, piling kneedeep along some beaches and feet high at others, as the Caribbean recorded historic levels of the phenomenon.

Across the southern coastline, along the Columbus Channel, beaches were overcome while parts of the east coast saw heaps of sargassum washing ashore.

Rio Claro/Mayaro Regional Corporation Chairman Raymond Cozier said yesterday that there was no sargassum influx in the region at this time. But in July, one Guayaguayare fisherman told the Express that as many as three- to four-foot-high heaps had gathered along the coast.