Massive strandings of seaweeds on the eastern coasts of the Yucatán peninsula, Mexico have become a major socioecological problem, creating the need for establishing a baseline monitoring program in the region. A citizen science initiative, Big Seaweed Search Mexico (BSS-Mx), was developed to monitor temporal changes in the biomass stranded (abundance and species composition) in the Yucatán peninsula. The initiative was tested in two regions; Puerto Morelos, Quintana Roo, where massive strandings of Sargassum have caused severe socioecological impacts, and Sisal, Yucatán, where there is scarce information about the species composition of the strandings and their seasonal dynamics. Even the different socioeconomic and ecological context of these regions, the public participation in close collaboration with research scientists allowed detection of the temporal changes in the abundance and species composition of the strandings in both locations over a period of ten months. A total of 45 taxa were identified in Puerto Morelos, from which pelagic Sargassum and a seagrass were dominant for most time of the year; whereas 58 taxa were identified in Sisal, observing a higher diversity dominated by red seaweeds, with dominant taxa changing seasonally. The results represent baseline information that should be considered to develop management strategies and marine conservation actions according to each region. The findings highlight the role of citizen science as a potential tool to conduct large-scale and long-term monitoring and stimulate public participation to address environmental issues.

墨西哥尤卡坦半岛东海岸的大规模海藻搁浅已成为一个重大的社会生态问题，因此需要在该地区建立基线监测计划。一项名为“墨西哥大海藻搜索”(BSS-Mx) 的公民科学计划旨在监测尤卡坦半岛滞留生物量（丰度和物种组成）的时间变化。该举措在两个地区进行了测试；莫雷洛斯港、金塔纳罗奥州的大量马尾藻搁浅造成了严重的社会生态影响，而尤卡坦州的剑麻则缺乏关于搁浅物种组成及其季节动态的信息。即使这些地区的社会经济和生态环境不同，公众的参与与研究科学家的密切合作也使得能够检测到十个月内两个地点搁浅的丰度和物种组成的时间变化。莫雷洛斯港共鉴定出 45 个类群，其中一年中的大部分时间以中上层马尾藻和海草为主；而剑麻中发现了 58 个类群，观察到以红海藻为主的较高多样性，并且优势类群随季节变化。结果代表了根据每个区域制定管理战略和海洋保护行动时应考虑的基线信息。研究结果强调了公民科学作为进行大规模和长期监测并刺激公众参与解决环境问题的潜在工具的作用。