Global Environmental Change 84 (2024) 102779

Available online 30 November 2023
0959-3780/© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Misperception of drivers of risk alters willingness to adapt in the case of 
sargassum influxes in West Africa 

D. Yaw Atiglo a, Philip- Neri Jayson-Quashigah b, Winnie Sowah c, Emma L. Tompkins d,*, Kwasi 
Appeaning Addo b,c 

a Regional Institute for Population Studies, University of Ghana, Ghana 
b Institute of Environment and Sanitation Studies, University of Ghana, Ghana 
c Department of Marine and Fishery Sciences, University of Ghana, Ghana 
d School of Geography and Environmental Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK   

A R T I C L E  I N F O   

Keywords: 
Sargassum 
Adaptation 
Adaptive capacity 
Emergent risk 
Self-efficacy 

A B S T R A C T   

Since 2011, large influxes of a brown macroalgae (pelagic sargassum seaweed) have proliferated across the 
Tropical Atlantic basin, its dispersal and seasonality theorized to be driven by localized and large scale winds and 
currents, in combination with changes in the Atlantic Meridional Mode and ocean upwelling. These influxes 
seasonally affect coastal populations across the breadth of the Tropical Atlantic (from central America to West 
Africa), causing damage to: economies, marine-based and non-marine coastal livelihoods, social functioning, 
health, ecology, and the aesthetics of the local environment. We use the ongoing sargassum influx in West Africa 
as a case study of adaptation to an emergent (and compound) risk in progress that also contributes to the 
empirical gap in sargassum adaptation research in West Africa. The research, in four sites in the Western Region 
of Ghana employs data from 16 focus group discussions, six key informant interviews, and participant obser-
vation. We finds that due to a series of coincidences, participant communities perceive that sargassum influxes 
were seeded by and then annually driven by oil and gas exploration in Western Ghana. This is in contrast to 
scientific research that indicates that pelagic sargassum was initially seeded in the tropical Atlantic basin (from 
the Sargasso Sea) in 2010 following an anomalous weather event in winter 2009–2010. Following Rogers’ 
Protection Motivation Theory, we explore the sources of information and the processing of that information to 
understand the divergence between scientific and community perceptions of the physical drivers. We find that 
community perceptions of oil and gas company responsibility for causing the sargassum problem leads the 
communities to perceive that the oil and gas companies should be responsible for the clean-up activities. 
Communities are further constrained by a perceived lack of capacity to act. Solutions to address this adaptation 
impasse could involve the government working with communities and the oil and gas industry to clarify the 
actual drivers of sargassum. Such guidance may open opportunities for the government and industry to work 
with communities to address misperceptions of the scientific nature of the influxes. Collaborative approaches, 
while addressing extant tensions, may also change the narrative about the problem, support affected commu-
nities to engage with adaptive measures, including re-use opportunities, and enhance community capacity to act. 
As a present-day emergent risk, pelagic sargassum provides an unusual yet contemporary empirical study of real- 
time adaptation and the central role of perceptions in shaping proactive adaptation and seeking exploitable 
opportunities from new environmental risks.   

1. Introduction 

Since 2011, the coastlines of West Africa, North, South and Central 

America, as well as the Caribbean islands have witnessed an unprece-
dented invasion of a floating brown macroalgae (pelagic sargassum1) 
along their beaches and in their territorial waters (Fidai et al., 2020; 

* Corresponding author. 
E-mail address: E.l.tompkins@soton.ac.uk (E.L. Tompkins).   

1 Pelagic sargassum, the brown marine seaweed, affecting West Africa since 2011 largely comprises S. natans and S. fluitans. In this paper pelagic sargassum is 
interchangeably referred to as ‘sargassum’ or ‘sargassum seaweed’. 

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect 

Global Environmental Change 

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/gloenvcha 

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2023.102779 
Received 15 December 2022; Received in revised form 10 October 2023; Accepted 17 November 2023   

mailto:E.l.tompkins@soton.ac.uk
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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2023.102779
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Global Environmental Change 84 (2024) 102779

2

UNEP, 2016; Oyesiku and Egunyomi, 2014; Széchy et al., 2012). A 
growing consensus attributes the southward shift in the range of pelagic 
sargassum – from the Sargasso Sea into the tropical Atlantic – to an 
anomalous North Atlantic Oscillation event in winter 2009–2010 (Johns 
et al., 2020). This event produced unusually strong south-westerly 
winds, and drove two species of sargassum (S. fluitans and S. natans) 
southward, seeding it within the tropical Atlantic where it has thrived 
(Johns et al., 2020; Putnam et al., 2018). Patches of sargassum now 
aggregate along an area of maximum wind convergence – the Inter 
Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) – and migrate around the tropical 
Atlantic (Putnam et al., 2018). In 2019, an estimated 8850 km of 
sargassum stretched across the tropical Atlantic from Central America to 
West Africa. This new phenomenon is referred to as the great Atlantic 
Sargassum Belt – GASB (Wang et al., 2019). Annual sargassum influxes 
are now considered the ‘new normal’, and quantities of sargassum 
appear to be increasing annually across the entire tropical Atlantic 
(Putman et al., 2020). 

After the sargassum seeding event in 2009/10, research identifying 
possible causes of the post-2011 proliferation across the tropical Atlantic 
suggested: increasing ocean temperature, influx of nutrients from land- 
use, and Saharan dust carrying nitrogen, phosphorus and iron (Ackah- 
Baidoo, 2013; Marsh et al., 2021; Ofori and Rouleau, 2020, 2021). 
Larger ocean–atmosphere theories are developing to connect the various 
parts of the puzzle to explain what is causing sargassum to bloom 
seasonally and move in specific ways around the tropical Atlantic. 
Exceptional sargassum bloom years tend to coincide with a southward 
shift in the ITCZ, towards the nutrient-rich waters from the Amazon 
River (Skliris et al., 2022). Other key factors appear to be: ocean up-
welling off West Africa in boreal winter (Wang et al., 2019); excessive 
wind-driven equatorial upwelling and anomalously strong north west-
ward nutrient transport (Skliris et al., 2022). Another newly identified 
factor that appears to affect reproduction, mortality and movement, is 
tropical storms (Putman and Hu, 2022) It is worth noting that there is no 
mention in the scientific literature of oil or gas exploration as a factor in 
seeding sargassum in the tropical Atlantic, nor as a driver of pelagic 
sargassum movement and prevalence. 

Floating and beached sargassum can have severe impacts on affected 
societies, economies and environmental resources (Bartlett and Elmer, 
2021; Fidai et al., 2020). Massive sargassum influxes have the potential 
to disrupt coastal livelihoods especially in low- and middle-income 
contexts (Oxenford et al., 2021). Initial evidence from central America 
and the Caribbean, suggests that there might be re-use options for 
sargassum, for example as a compost for mangrove restoration (Trench 
et al., 2022), as animal feed (Carillo-Dominguez et al., 2023), as bio- 
crude oil (Marx et al., 2021), as well as a variety of possible uses in 
food and beverages, bioplastics, paper, and construction materials, 
among others (Oxenford et al., 2022). Research on adaptation to, and re- 
use of, sargassum has increased annually (Liranzo-Gómez et al., 2020). 

The magnitude of the sargassum problem affecting both sides of the 
tropical Atlantic has been similar, yet adaptation progress appears to 
have moved ahead faster in the Caribbean and Americas (Robledo et al., 
2021). A key gap in the West African context appears to be available 
information about the frequency, magnitude and seasonality of the 
sargassum, its impacts and how to manage it. In the Caribbean and 
Central America, publications revealing large scale sargassum moni-
toring started in 2013 (Webster and Linton, 2013), ecological impacts 
were being documented from 2015 (Maurer et al., 2015), and socio- 
economic impacts for the Caribbean reported from 2018 (UNEP, 
2018). Research into pathways to valorise sargassum in the Caribbean 
and the Americas started in 2016 (e.g. Milledge and Harvey, 2016), and 
grew exponentially in 2021, see for example, Amador-Castro et al., 

2021; Davis et al., 2021. Yet there is no parallel body of work for West 
Africa. This fact is exemplified by the contents of a Zotero database on 
pelagic sargassum in the tropical Atlantic,2 compiled by the Centre for 
Resource Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES) at the 
University of the West Indies. On the database a total of 635 publications 
and reports exist on pelagic sargassum (dated between 2010 and the 
25th September 2023), of those only 22 (3 %) relate specifically to West 
Africa. This research has documented the arrival of sargassum in West 
Africa and noted its potential to negatively affect coastal livelihoods 
(Ackah-Baidoo, 2013; Addico and deGraft-Johnson, 2016; Marsh et al., 
2021; Ofori and Rouleau, 2020, 2021). Recent research on sargassum 
adaptation progress in the Caribbean and the Americas highlights the 
benefits gained from rapid development of freely accessible sargassum 
early warnings (e.g. SaWS led by University of South Florida, and SEAS 
led by Texas A&M University) drawing on open access remotely sensed 
data (Dominguez-Almela et al., 2023). Sargassum forecasts for the 
Caribbean have improved over time and since 2018 have provided 
relatively accurate seasonal forecasts of the spatial and temporal dis-
tribution of the seaweed approaching the Americas (Wang and Hu, 
2017). 

Sargassum early warning systems and seasonal forecasts do not exist 
for West Africa. Remote sensing of sargassum blooms in West Africa is 
more challenging due to the high levels of year round cloud cover 
(Marsh et al., 2021). Cloud cover limits reliability of remotely sensed 
images and West African countries have had to adopt alternative 
methods to monitor sargassum bloom events. Alternative methods 
include use of field measurement and drone imagery, but these are more 
expensive and time consuming than use of remote sensing technologies. 
Hence progress in developing West African estimates of impacts of 
sargassum, and seasonal forecasts lag significantly behind the advances 
in the western tropical Atlantic. In the Caribbean and Americas, the 
relative economic importance of the coastal tourism industry may also 
have an amplifying effect on public and political awareness of the issue. 
Tourists have easy access to social media outlets (such as twitter and 
Tripadvisor) to communicate displeasure about sargassum arrivals, 
thereby influencing tourist arrivals in specific locations, affecting local 
economies, and being noticed by politicians (Fraga and Robledo, 2022). 
In West Africa, with fewer tourists, and less economic dependence on 
tourism, this effect has not been as apparent. Further in West Africa, 
other attenuating factors could be the perceived lower importance of 
sargassum in relation to other policy issues, such as hunger, crime and 
violence – the latter are seen as more important than environmental 
concerns (White and Hunter, 2010). Pelagic sargassum influxes are 
therefore a relatively poorly understood problem in West Africa, with 
less known about the challenges of sargassum in comparison to other 
more well-known risks such as floods, erosion or oil spills. Irrespective of 
the cause of the slow progress on sargassum research in West Africa, a 
significant gulf has opened in understanding community adaptation to 
sargassum between the eastern and western tropical Atlantic. Filling this 
gap with a scientific evidence base is an important step to support 
governments, communities, scientists and entrepreneurs find ways to 
better cope with the new normal of annual sargassum events. 

Decades of research on understanding societal impacts of environ-
mental and climatic change points to the importance of engagement 
with different knowledges, and active participation of affected people 
(Thomas et al., 2019). Ignoring the role of communities in management 
of natural hazards can worsen associated problems (Camargo et al., 
2009), particularly where there are low levels of trust in management 
agencies (Wynveen and Sutton, 2015). Affected peoples’ perceptions of 
risk and their lived experiences, shape their understanding of environ-
mental problems, possible solutions, and their potential role (Adger 

2 The Zotero ‘Sargassum Reference Repository’ database is online at: Centre 
for Resource Management & Environmental Studies (CERMES) | The University 
of the West Indies at Cave Hill, Barbados – Reference-Repository (uwi.edu). 

D. Yaw Atiglo et al.                                                                                                                                                                                                                            



Global Environmental Change 84 (2024) 102779

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et al., 2013). For example, empirical evidence of household level re-
sponses to flood risks reveals a relationship between how people 
appraise their ability to cope with their actual risk mitigation actions 
(Bubeck et al., 2012). Yet people’s perception of environmental risks 
and their ability to cope are often ignored in risk management (Aerts 
et al., 2018), potentially amplifying negative impacts of hazardous 
natural events (Fan et al., 2022). Despite relatively large amounts of 
literature on drivers of risk behaviours in relation to floods and hurri-
canes, there is little research that explores drivers of adaptation and risk 
perceptions in relation to other hazards (van Valkengoed and Steg, 
2019), including community adaptation to mass algal bloom events, 
such as the sargassum influxes along the West African coast. This study 
addresses this gap by exploring community perspectives on the nature of 
sargassum, the physical drivers of the sargassum influxes, and people’s 
perceptions of their capacity to adapt to this risk through application of 
the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT), developed by Rogers (1975). 
PMT has been used extensively in developed and developing economies 
to identify how people cope with environmental risks (Bubeck et al., 
2013; Bubeck et al., 2018; Shafiei and Maleksaeidi, 2020); it focusses on 
the link between sources of information and three cognitive processes 
that determine people’s engagement with protective (adaptive) behav-
iour: responsibility, threat and coping appraisals, see Fig. 2. 

PMT is useful to understand the drivers of household level adaptation 
as it allows analysis of the sources of information used, the impact of 
these sources of knowledge on the nature of the risk, and capacity to 
adapt (Bubeck et al., 2017; van der Plank et al., 2022). This research uses 
PMT to better understand how households are experiencing sargassum 
and adapting to sargassum in the Western Region of Ghana. 

The following section explains the methods and material used, de-
scribes the data collected the participants and study sites. Section 3 
presents analysis of the empirical data, drawing out themes of: the na-
ture of sargassum, the drivers of sargassum, the lived experience of 
sargassum influxes on communities, perceptions of responsibility for 
action, and how these factors collectively affect adaptive capacity, and 
adaptation choices. The discussion in section 4, explores Ghanaian 
community perspectives on sargassum, the coincidence of oil and gas 
development in Ghana in 2010, extant tensions between the commu-
nities and the oil and gas companies, and how this informs adaptive 
actions. We compare levels of action in Ghana with other countries 
across the Tropical Atlantic and explore the implications of the findings. 
Our conclusions draw out lessons learned on adapting emergent and 
compound risks – whereby a risk is amplified due to extant conditions or 
unrelated parallel events. We also reflect on the role of PMT in uncov-
ering hidden dimensions of adaptation and the potential for trans-
formational adaptation to occur from emergent risks. 

2. Materials and methods 

Following Wolf and Moser (2011), to understand the lived experi-
ences and perspectives of communities adapting to a new environmental 
risk, a qualitative research design is used combining focus group dis-
cussions, key informant interviews, and participant observation. These 
methods are applied in our case study in Ghana, with analysis shaped by 
the Protection Motivation Theory. 

2.1. Study area: Western region of Ghana 

Low lying sandy beaches appear to experience the worst effects of 
sargassum influxes, as seen in Mexico (Chávez et al., 2020). The Western 
Region beaches are predominantly sandy and low lying, and inter-
spersed with some lagoons and estuaries, putting them at risk of 
sargassum influxes. Two low lying coastal districts (also vulnerable to 
the impacts of sea level rise) in the Western Region were chosen for this 
study: Ellembelle District and Jomoro District (Boateng et al., 2017; 
Wiafe et al., 2013). Ellembelle has a population of 120,893 with a 
population density of 124.3 while Jomoro has a population of about 

126,576 with a density of 87.7 persons per square kilometre. Within the 
two districts, four communities were selected due to their reported 
history of sargassum stranding and beaching (Ackah-Baidoo, 2013; 
Marsh et al., 2021), see Fig. 1. 

The four communities were chosen to include: a geographic spread 
across the coast of the Western Region and diverse livelihoods including 
fishing and non-fishing livelihoods (the latter includes: tourism, cassava 
and other crop farming, as well as coconut plantations and processing). 
To maintain the anonymity of participants, we refer to the four com-
munities as: Large Community (most urbanized with population of 
approximately 8,000), Small Community 1 and Small Community 2 
(fishing communities with populations between 1,000 and 1,300), and 
Medium Community (more westerly community with a population of 
around 2,000 people). 

The main economic livelihoods in the Western Region are artisanal 
fishing, fish processing and fish trading (GSS, 2013). These activities are 
gendered where women dominate in fish processing and trade while 
men dominate the fishing processes. Crop farming and keeping of live-
stock, exist on subsistence levels inland together with other trading 
activities. In addition, the region is dotted with several tourist resorts 
which receive local tourists. Tourism relies on the presence of colonial 
forts, beaches and ecotourism sites, though it employs not as many 
people as fishing and other agricultural activities (GSS, 2013). 

Offshore in the Western region of Ghana, there have been oil and gas 
discoveries in commercial quantities with production starting in 
December 2010 (Ackah-Baidoo, 2012). Exploration and extraction of 
this abundant oil and gas supply have contributed to Ghana’s steady 
national economic growth since 2010 (Obeng-Odoom, 2015). Despite 
the economic benefits generated by oil and gas extraction in many 
resource-extracting economies community-industry, conflicts between 
nearby communities and the oil and gas companies related to perceived 
links between declining environmental quality and mineral extraction 
are common (Omeje, 2017). These conflicts often arise due to inade-
quate engagement with local communities creating mistrust, and con-
flicts simmer due to unaddressed grievances (Siakwah, 2018). In the 
Western region of Ghana, tensions emerged relatively quickly after 2010 
between the resource exploration and extraction companies, and the 
local communities (Agyei et al., 2012). Initial problems related to fishing 
communities’ complaints about the lights used on the offshore rigs, 
which attract the fish away from traditional fishing grounds towards the 
exclusion zone around the rigs. This reduces the catch of local artisanal 
fishers (Adjei and Overå, 2019). Coincidental to the start of oil and gas 
drilling in 2010, the mass proliferation of floating and beaching 
sargassum started across the tropical Atlantic in 2011. Fishers rapidly 
associated the arrival of sargassum and the related impacts on the local 
fishing industry, with the extraction of oil and gas (Ackah-Baidoo, 
2013). By the time of data collection for this study in 2021, significant 
discord existed between the oil and gas companies and local commu-
nities in the Western region of Ghana (Mohammed et al., 2022a). 

2.2. Data collection methods and ethics 

Data collection occurred between March 2021 and December 2021. 
Four focus group discussions were held in each community, stratified by 
age group and gender (16 in total). The four groups were: young males, 
young females (aged 18–34 years), adult males and adult females (aged 
35 years and above).3 Key informant interviews were held during the 
same period with opinion leaders across the four communities as well as 

3 In Large Community, a young male aged 31 years joined the adult group 
because of his role as a leader in the community and his association with other 
persons who were in the older adult group. In this same community, there was a 
40-year old who participated in the youth group because he associated and 
identified with these younger adults. Similarly, the young female group in Small 
Community 1 included 37-year old females. 

D. Yaw Atiglo et al.                                                                                                                                                                                                                            



Global Environmental Change 84 (2024) 102779

4

actors in the tourism sector. All interviews were transcribed verbatim. 
Respondents’ statements were coded and developed into themes based 
on the PMT framework, and then analysed using thematic content 
analysis to make sense of the shared normative values and experiences 
(Braun and Clarke, 2006). Participant observation occurred in all four 
communities over 10 visits. This involved field observation of life and 
livelihood activities along the coast, and taking pictures of sargassum 
beaching impacts on community activities. During such visits over 50 
pictures were taken with both drones and phones to record the beaching 
of sargassum and the impacts on residents and fisherfolk. Ethical 
approval was granted for this work from the University of Ghana Ethics 
Committee in April 2021. Standard ethical procedures were followed to 
ensure confidentiality of information provided by participants. Partici-
pants were required to declare their consent to participate, be recorded 

and provide their personal background information (Table 1), however 
all transcripts were anonymized. 

2.3. Data collected and study participants 

Focus group participants were selected based on two criteria (i) 
living in close proximity to the beach and (ii) identified as lifetime or 
regular residents. Following best practice in focus group sampling, pri-
ority was given to participants who lived closest to the beach and had 
livelihoods related to the beach (Nyumba et al., 2018). The research 
team used existing gatekeepers to recruit participants who, in some sites, 
were encouraged to suggest other potential respondents. 

Across all four sites, recruited through a combination of purposive 
and snowball sampling, the final set of participants comprised 119 

Fig. 1. Map of the study area in the Western Region of Ghana showing the two districts of Ellembelle and Jomoro, from which four coastal communities 
were selected. 

Fig. 2. Modified Protection Motivation Theory (van der Plank et al., 2022).  

D. Yaw Atiglo et al.                                                                                                                                                                                                                            



Global Environmental Change 84 (2024) 102779

5

participants: 50 % male, 50 % female; 47 % younger adults, 53 % older 
adults; 82 % with no or basic education and 18 % with secondary edu-
cation or above; and 71 % of total were fishers. Unemployed persons 
accounted for 24 % of the total, and students 6 %. The distribution of 
educational attainment and occupations is differentiated by gender. 
Among males, 72 % had no or basic education and 28 % had secondary 
education or above whereas among females 91 % had no or basic edu-
cation and 8 % had secondary education or above. Also, there were 
higher proportions of males (78 %) involved in fishery-related occupa-
tions than females (63 %) with a higher proportion of women in other 
occupations. Detailed characteristics shown in Supplementary material, 
Table 1. 

In addition to the focus groups, six key informant interviews were 
undertaken with traditional leaders, local assemblymen and opinion 
leaders. These interviews were held in community leisure centres, 
chief’s palace, private homes among others and lasted approximately 40 
min and 50 min for females and males, respectively. Older male in-
terviews were the longest while younger female adult interviews were 
the shortest. The interviews asked questions around the nature of 
sargassum, community sargassum experience, coping strategies and 
perceptions of causes of sargassum and roles of community (and their 
leaders) in dealing with sargassum. Responses were recorded and later 
transcribed. When interviewees from focus groups are quoted within the 
text the acronym FGD is appended to their code e.g. ‘Small Community 2 
male FGD’ and ‘Large Community female’ represents respectively a male 
focus group participant from Small Community 1, and a female inter-
viewee from Large Community. If multiple types of participants from the 
same group are quoted, these are differentiated by number e.g. Large 
Community older male 1, Large Community older male 2. 

3. Knowledge of sargassum, perceptions of drivers, impacts and 
capacity to adapt 

To fully understand how people are adapting to sargassum, we first 
explore participants’ perceptions of the nature and drivers of pelagic 
sargassum, their lived experience and then perceptions of responsibility, 
coping appraisals and adaptive behaviours. 

3.1. Appraisal of pelagic sargassum threat (influx and its drivers) 

Participants presented a wide array of opinions about the origins and 
drivers of sargassum influxes. A few believed sargassum influxes were 
due to natural causes, some perceived the drivers to be a variety of 

anthropogenic causes, but the majority (of all ages and both sexes) 
believed that (in contrast to the prevailing scientific understanding – see 
section 1) the sargassum influxes were directly related to oil and gas 
exploration in the Gulf of Guinea. 

3.1.1. Misperception of the nature of sargassum (biology of the seaweed) 
Pelagic sargassum is a floating seaweed, it lives and dies on the ocean 

surface and at no point attaches to the seabed (Oyesiku and Egunyomi, 
2014). Yet some respondents incorrectly believed that the sargassum 
washing ashore was previously attached to the seabed: 

I believe they are weeds that grow on the seabed. So when it comes to a 
time for these weeds to leave the seabed, that is when they are washed to 
our shores. That’s what I think… I think it has to do with seasons. The 
weeds I think appear here because it is time for them to appear. (Small 
Community 1, Younger Male) 

This misunderstanding of the nature of sargassum was particularly 
common among Small Community 1 males, and was repeated by many: 

I am of the opinion that everything has its season. The weeds are no 
different so when it reaches its season, it leaves the seabed and comes to 
the surface. They are seasonal plants just like other plants. It is similar to 
how plants shed their leaves at a certain point in time. (Small Community 
1, adult male) 

There were other beliefs about sargassum that were not biologically 
accurate, for example, that sargassum is an animal and not a seaweed: 

I think the weeds are animals because when they get stuck in the net and 
you handpick them out of the net, it feels like they are moving in your 
palms… I believe the weeds are actually animals. Because when you touch 
them, it feels like they are moving. (Small Community 1, younger male) 

The lack of credible and accessible information available to the 
communities about the biological nature of sargassum appears to be a 
cause of later misunderstandings about the drivers of sargassum 
influxes. 

3.1.2. Misperceptions of the drivers of sargassum influxes 
For some, the misconception that the seaweed is benthic (i.e. fixed to 

the ocean floor), leads to mistaken assumptions about the importance of 
these seaweeds in coastal ecosystems, and how it is disturbed from the 
ocean floor. For some respondents, the (erroneous) understanding is that 
benthic weeds are disturbed by oil drilling activities: 

The weeds are light and they come from the seabed. It is in these weeds 
that the fish birth fingerlings and nurture them till they grow. When the oil 
explorers started drilling for oil, they cut these weeds which are later 
pushed by the winds to the shore…When the oil explorers start drilling and 
laying their pipes, they cut the weeds to make way. So when the wind 
blows, it pushes them ashore… These weeds are in the sea and they are 
very fragile so the least disturbance suspends them and when the wind 
blows, they are washed ashore. (Small Community 1, Older Male FGD). 

Despite oil industry denial of a link between oil and gas and 
sargassum (Ackah-Baidoo, 2013), the coincidences in the timing of the 
start of drilling activities and the first arrival of sargassum reinforce this 
thinking in affected communities. In the absence of accessible trusted 
information that shows the cause of the initial seeding of sargassum in 
the tropical Atlantic by the NAO anomaly in 2009/10, community res-
idents appear to have logically perceived a link between the timing of 
the sargassum influxes and the start of oil and gas exploration activity. 
An incorrect pathway of causality is therefore developed – oil drilling 
causes benthic sargassum to become detached which leads to influxes: 

Table 1 
Adaptation methods tried in all four communities.  

Event type Adaptation type Actors Reason for 
adaptation 

Floating Not going to 
seaAltering fishing 
techniques 

Fishers Entangled nets 
Low fish catch 

Beaching Not going to 
seaSeeking alternative 
livelihood options 

Fishers Entangled nets 

Cleaning (gathering, 
collection and 
burying) 

Tourism 
actorsCommunity 

AestheticsStench 

Do nothing (leave to 
rot) 

Community n.a. 

Wearing nose/face 
masks 

Community Stench 

Taking out 
loansMigration (short- 
term and long term) 

FishersCommunity Livelihood 
disruption 

Both 
floating 
and 
beaching 

Food/fish rationing 
(reduce amount of 
fish/food consumed) 

Community 
(women) 

Livelihood 
disruption  

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Global Environmental Change 84 (2024) 102779

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When they4 start drilling the gas, that is when the seaweeds appear… Four 
or six years ago there were no seaweeds here. When xxx5 and xxx 
companies came here and started drilling oil, that is when the weeds 
started coming. Sometimes the weeds stop appearing for say a week but 
sometimes it doesn’t even take two months for the weeds to reappear 
(Small Community 2, Younger Male FGD). 

Further, participants perceived a coincidence between the timing of 
offshore flaring of gas (visible from the beaches at night) and sargassum 
influxes. While no scientific empirical research has been undertaken to 
explore this issue, in the absence of other information, a respondent 
alluded to gas flaring as a driver of sargassum beaching events: 

What causes it [sargassum influx] is the gas exploration. When they start 
operations, then it shows up. When they halt their operations, the weeds 
do not show up. Anytime they light up their fire [referring to gas flaring] 
and it reflects on the waters, then we know that the weeds will show up 
soon (Small Community 1 Younger Female FGD). 

Building on the perceived evidence (coincidental timing of start of 
influxes and oil and gas exploration, and the flaring of gas and arrival of 
sargassum), participants provided a third piece of evidence to verify 
their perception of a link between sargassum arrivals and the oil and gas 
company activity. Fishers, more familiar with ocean tides and currents, 
had noticed that sargassum only arrives when winds come from the west 
(where the oil and gas companies are located). Scientific evidence 
confirms that sargassum appears to be brought into the Ghanaian coast 
from the west, but explains that this is due to the nature of oceanic and 
prevailing Ghanaian coastal currents and winds (Skliris et al., 2022). 
Without access to this scientific evidence about sargassum, it appeared 
to participants that the coincidence of all three preceding factors pointed 
clearly to a link between sargassum influxes and the activities of oil and 
gas companies: 

I fish at deep seas, when the tides are high, you will see the weeds coming 
from the direction of Half Assin, Atoabu [west], where [oil and gas 
company] is located. When the wind blows from this side [the east] the 
weeds don’t come, but when it blows from this side [the west] the weeds 
come. That’s where xxx Gas is located (Large Community, younger 
male). 

Despite these strongly-held perceptions and certainty among some, 
that sargassum influxes were related to oil and gas exploration, there 
were divergent opinions in some groups on what drives sargassum 
strandings. For some, sargassum influxes were naturally occurring, 
reflecting openness to scientific input on the source of sargassum: 

We do not know what causes it, all we know is, it comes from the sea (New 
Town, Adult Female). 
We actually can’t tell where the weeds are coming from. We the fisher-
folks sometimes accuse the oil drillers of being the cause of the weeds, the 
oil drillers can equally accuse the fisherfolks of being the cause of the 
weed. We can’t really tell where the weeds are coming from, only God 
knows where it is coming from (Medium Community, Young Adult Male). 

3.2. Appraisal of lived experience of sargassum impacts 

Sargassum stranding has multifaceted impacts on communities, 
directly through impacts on health and environmental quality, beach 
aesthetics and tourism, marine livelihoods, but also indirectly on non- 
marine livelihoods, and social order. 

3.2.1. Health and environmental quality impacts 
Sargassum can reduce the environmental quality of coastal com-

munities. During peak sargassum influx events, the sargassum can cover 
an entire beach, piling up to one metre high and preventing any beach- 
based livelihood activity (Fig. 3). 

Beached sargassum decomposes and emits hydrogen sulfide causing 
respiratory problems and other direct and indirect impacts on the health 
of coastal residents (Resiere et al., 2018). In all the study sites partici-
pants reported a foul stench emanating from decomposing seaweeds, 
and explained how the seaweed caused difficulties in beach access and 
use, breathing problems, skin irritation and coughing: 

The stench from the weed makes it difficult for us to stay at the shore or 
even at home (Medium Community, young male). 
We are always told to keep garbage out of our environment, because the 
stench from garbage is not good for our health so if the weeds are here and 
it smells when it rots, how then can we be healthy when we smell that bad 
stench… It smells so bad that even human excreta cannot be compared to 
it (Small Community 1, adult female). 
When you touch it, it itches. (Medium Community, Adult Female). 
Those of us situated at the coastal areas tend to be coughing a lot and 
there is a high rate of malaria too. This is because when the weeds get 
rotten, the stench which it produces when inhaled causes us to cough a lot 
but because our leaders haven’t done further research to know the cause 
of it, we are very much exposed (Large Community, adult male). 

3.2.2. Impacts on beach aesthetics and tourism 
Community members expressed concern about the effect of 

sargassum stranding and beaching on aesthetics. Reduced aesthetic and 
environmental quality affect both community leisure, cultural activities 
and tourism (Bartlett and Elmer, 2021). The latter impact affects the 
nascent tourism industry and potential income for the community, as 
well as local recreational and cultural use. 

When the weeds come, the water changes colour and looks starchy. The 
sea loses its beauty (Small Community 1, adult female) 
When the weeds come, we are affected, especially on 1st January, we 
have celebrations at the beach. Now we are unable to celebrate because of 
the weeds (Medium Community, young male). 
The weeds have an unpleasant odour when they rot. Tourists from Accra 
and Kumasi pass by here to go to Nzulezo. Sometimes they would like to 
come to the beach but the stench repels them (Small Community 1, adult 
male). 

3.2.3. Impacts on marine livelihoods 
Both beaching and floating sargassum have impacts on fishery- 

related livelihoods in all affected parts of the tropical Atlantic (Ramlo-
gan et al., 2017). In the Western region, direct impacts come from loss 
and damage to fishing gear and the financial and time cost of replacing/ 
mending nets and engines. Fishers also indicated that they catch 
sargassum instead of fish, causing immediate losses in the affected days, 
but also longer term damage to nets (Fig. 4): 

We fish both on the surface and beneath the sea, when we cast our nets, 
we end up catching weeds… (Medium Community, adult male). 
Our source of income is fishing but when the sea weeds appear we cannot 
fish. They destroy our nets and other fishing equipment. When this hap-
pens for months, we end up eating into our savings because we are 
homebound (Small Community 2, adult male). 
The weeds really disturb us. As we speak, my brothers just came back 
from fishing and they couldn’t get any good fish. Their nets have been 
clenched together by the weeds and ruined. There is no cash to even fix the 
nets or buy a new one (Large Community, adult male). 

Participants indicated that sargassum seaweeds can also destroy or 
impede their fishing vessels (Fig. 5). 

4 Oil and gas companies operating in the Western region of Ghana.  
5 ‘xxx’ is used in place of the oil and gas company names that were stated by 

respondents. 

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The weeds can even trap the boat. We have to use our hands to clear the 
weeds before we can come ashore (Small Community 2, adult male). 

Indirect costs negatively affect the fishers due to the man-hours spent 
removing tangled weeds from the nets and repairing damaged nets. This 
involves spending longer periods mending and cleaning the fishing nets. 

When we go fishing and we catch weeds, we now have to sit and remove 
the weeds (Medium Community, younger male) 

Other indirect costs come from wasted fuel for fishing vessels which 
go out to fish, but whose nets catch sargassum instead of fish. The 
wasted trips reduce the potential profit from the sale of the fish, and 

Fig. 3. Aerial view of beached Sargassum at Large Community (30th September 2021), photograph taken with drone as part of field measurements.  

Fig. 4. Fishing nets filled with sargassum.  

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reduce the ability of fishers to make other trips (as they have less cash for 
fuel). 

Sometimes you can buy two gallons of petrol and go to sea to catch fish. 
Because of the weeds, you might catch little or no fish at all. Then you 
have to waste petrol to get back to the shore (Small Community 1, young 
male). 
We end up wasting our fuel and not making any income. We the fisher-
folks don’t get fuel to work, the fuel that is sold at 5.5 cedis, when they 
distribute it amongst themselves, we end up buying it at 150 or 200 cedis. 
If you don’t have such an amount, you can’t buy fuel and go to work 
(Medium Community, adult Male). 

3.2.4. Indirect economic and social disruption 
Respondents noted that sargassum influxes appear to have wider 

indirect social impacts. The negative effects appear to ripple through the 
entire local economy due to the linked nature of marine-based and non- 
marine livelihoods. 

Most respondents recognized the relationship between marine and 
non-marine livelihoods within their communities. Comments made re-
flected participants’ insights that the money from fisheries passes 
through many different hands within the community (such as: drivers, 
transport operators, other local businesses, traders, fishmongers, local 
restaurants), and correctly identified that the sargassum influxes were 
hence affecting everyone: 

It [sargassum] brings a lot of problems. There is an exchange cycle. We 
get money when we get fish, without that we cannot go out and buy stuff 
from traders which is very worrying…. The presence of the weeds poses a 
lot of threats that worries traders. Fish becomes expensive. Drivers 
(transport operators) also suffer because without any catch, they cannot 
transport anything (Small Community 2 adult male) 
If we don’t get fish, the business of drivers and other traders does not 
progress. Because when we fish and make some money, that’s when we 
are able to patronize other businesses and the drivers also get to load the 
fish. When we don’t make money, all other businesses are affected. 
(Medium Community, adult male) 
It affects everyone because when they go fishing and do not bring fish, the 
fishmongers will not get fish to sell as well as inhabitants to also buy to 
cook with. It affects everyone. (Small Community 1, adult female) 
The weeds disturb those who engage in trading on the beaches. Why I am 
saying this is because I am a businessman, I sell and so if the fishermen go 
fishing and return empty handed, how can I also grow in business? (Large 
Community, adult male) 
It affects drivers, the fishmongers and all those who sell in this town 
because when we stop going fishing, they don’t make much sales. Most 

chop bars [local eateries] are not opened now because if people don’t 
have money to purchase the food, the caterer will run at a loss. So we are 
all affected. It affects the drivers too a lot (Small Community 1, adult 
male) 

Some noted the gendered impacts on livelihoods. While men are 
generally those catching the fish, women have the role of cleaning and 
selling the fish (i.e. the fishmongers). These two businesses are inter-
dependent, which means that both men and women are negatively 
affected: 

Okay, I am a photographer and a businessman. I work with the fisher 
folks, especially the women who sell, but due to the occurrence of the 
weeds, it has caused low patronage in my business which also causes 
hardship for me (Large Community, adult male) 
When the weeds show up, it is us (the fishmongers) and fishermen who are 
affected the most. Because if they (fishermen) do not go fishing we do not 
get fish to buy and sell. (Small Community 1, adult female) 
Another problem is the fact that the women do not get fish to smoke and 
sell. Ideally they would have supported the family but since they also 
depend on the fish to survive, both men and women are at a loss. (Small 
Community 1, adult male) 

Economic disruption from sargassum influxes appear to be gener-
ating social consequences. Male respondents recounted the impacts of 
failed fishing trips on their personal relationships, and others mentioned 
that there may be a link between sargassum influxes and petty crime: 

Your wife knows you’ve gone to work, thinking you will bring money 
home, only for you to return with debt. You didn’t return home with 
money neither with fish, when that happens, it brings misunderstanding 
(Large Community, young male) 
The weeds affect me personally. My wife wants to leave me, because of the 
weeds, I’m unable to work and my wife always complains (Large Com-
munity, young male). 

Participants also cite a possible link between sargassum events and 
petty crime: 

It [sargassum] has brought hunger because when we work we are able to 
buy food to eat but if we do not work, how can we fend for ourselves? 
Young boys are stealing to feed because they cannot go fishing (Small 
Community 1, young females) 

Participants clearly perceive a link between sargassum and health 
problems, livelihood losses, economic disruption, and knock-on conse-
quences across society. 

Fig. 5. (left) nets tangled with sargassum; (right) fishers untangling nets and removing sargassum strands from fishing gear.  

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3.3. Appraisal of responsibility to adapt to sargassum influxes 

All groups discussed who they perceived to be responsible for 
addressing the sargassum problem. This section is grouped into ‘others’ 
and ‘self’. 

3.3.1. Responsibility for adaptation by ‘others’ 
Across all groups, due to the belief that benthic weeds are disturbed 

by oil extraction, many participants perceived the oil and gas companies 
to be responsible for both causing the sargassum influxes, and for 
dealing with the consequent problems affecting the community. Par-
ticipants laid responsibility for adaptation – notably sharing information 
about the seaweed and drivers of the influxes, as well as the distribution 
of financial support to help those affected – at the door of the oil and gas 
companies. 

We the fisherfolks complain the oil drillers are the cause of the weed, so, 
we suggest they stop the oil production and observe whether the weeds will 
come or not. If they stop the oil production and the weeds still come, then 
we know it’s not due to the oil production. When we stop them and the 
weeds stop coming, then we know the weeds come as a result of the oil 
production. (Medium Community, young male) 
Maybe the people from xxx will know what it can be used for since they 
are the cause of the weed. (Large Community, young male) 
Both xxx and xxx have done nothing to help us. They do not even have the 
courtesy to come and explain to us why the weeds keep coming. Since the 
weeds don’t affect them, they do not come here to tell us anything (Large 
Community, adult male). 

Others pointed to the government as the key agency responsible, 
while recognizing the central role of the oil and gas companies in 
causing the problem: 

Government initiative is the solution. As we have already established, xxx 
is the main culprit so halting their exploration will help (Small Community 
1, adult female). 

For most respondents, individual community members saw re-
sponsibility for adapting to the large recurrent problem of sargassum, as 
outside of their domain. 

3.3.2. Responsibility for adaptation by self 
Almost all respondents felt that they had no responsibility to address 

the sargassum problem – as they had not caused the problem. It was 
repeatedly noted there was nothing that communities or fishers could do 
to prevent the seaweed from arriving and damaging their livelihoods. 
Many felt that the only action that would generate a reduction in 
sargassum inflows was stopping drilling by the oil and gas companies. 
Statements were repeatedly made indicating that ‘there is nothing we 
can do’: 

The oil drilling should be stopped because apart from that, nothing can be 
done. Unless they decide to give us huge sums of money to establish new 
business so that we wouldn’t have to depend on fishing to make ends meet. 
(Small Community 1, adult male). 
There is nothing we can do about the weeds. We can only be relieved if the 
oil and gas company halts its operations. (Medium Community, older 
male 1) 
We can’t do anything about the weeds, we are under the control of the 
government, the oil and gas company is also under the control of the 
government. If they don’t halt their operations, we can’t say anything. As 
you have come, please inform the government that though the income 
from the oil exploration is to develop the country, the activities of fish-
erfolks are being affected, that’s the little we have to say. (Medium 
Community, older male 2) 

This self-appraisal of own responsibility is likely linked to the 
ongoing tensions between local communities and the oil and gas com-
panies in the Western region of Ghana. In the absence of these 

community-industry tensions, there is evidence from Central America 
and the Caribbean, that the community could become more actively 
involved in better understanding the nature of the phenomenon, long 
term risk mitigation, preparedness for events, responding to events, 
recovering after events, and in finding opportunities from the 
sargassum. For example, in Mexico evidence shows that multiple groups 
have taken responsibility for different parts of the sargassum problem: 
communities to raise the alarm, the media to raise awareness of the 
issue, academia to monitor the blooms using remote sensing, govern-
ments to provide management guidance, individual villages and busi-
ness affected to clear the sargassum, and entrepreneurs to find uses for 
the sargassum (Rosellón-Druker et al., 2022). This collaborative 
approach and a sense of shared responsibility across society was not 
evident in Ghana and could be considered part of the ‘resource curse’ 
often associated with extraction of minerals and oil (Owusu, 2018). 

3.4. Appraisal of coping ability and adaptation actions 

Perceptions of ability to cope with the sargassum proved to be 
intricately linked to perceptions of responsibility for action, and in turn 
actual adaptations undertaken. 

3.4.1. Coping appraisal 
Respondents focused their discussion of how they coped in two main 

areas: (i) their affected livelihoods and (ii) how they managed the 
sargassum on the beach. Other aspects of coping / adaptation were not 
considered, for example, trialling sargassum for use in local subsistence 
agriculture, preventing sargassum from beaching, or accessing tropical 
Atlantic-wide early warnings of sargassum blooms. Overall, participants 
perceived themselves to have limited ability to cope with the sargassum 
influxes; this appears to be a result of their focus on impacts on their 
livelihoods. Participants perceived that they had narrow skillsets, and 
could not undertake alternative livelihoods (when there is disruption 
due to sargassum) and they pointed to the limited effectiveness of the 
local adaptations already attempted (Table 1). 

Communities indicated that they have limited livelihood options, 
and are unable to diversify into alternative livelihood strategies due to a 
lack of basic and specialist skills. These sentiments were expressed 
typically in the male groups: 

We the fishermen don’t have any other occupation; we are Fanti and this 
town is an Nzema town. We are migrants, who have come here to fish. So, 
if we are unable to fish, we can’t go and steal coconut. We don’t have 
farms to depend on, we only depend on fishing, so, if we are unable to fish, 
that’s all (Medium Community, adult male). 
I am illiterate. Fishing is my only source of income. When the weeds 
arrive, it is difficult to fish so I cannot make ends meet when they (the 
weeds) start coming (Small Community 1, young male). 
If I had learnt any other trade, I would have stopped fishing. We are not 
able to make a living; we don’t enjoy fishing any longer. When I was 
young, I didn’t attend school because of fishing. I thought I could fish and 
make a living but since the weeds started coming, we no longer enjoy the 
work (Medium Community, adult male). 
Because we live on the coast and are a fishing community, we do not have 
anywhere to relocate to or work. We aren’t good with farming but just the 
fishing. So when the weeds come like that, it brings a halt to our fishing 
activities, which disturbs us greatly (Large Community, adult male). 

In addition, to perceiving that they lacked skills, since 2011, all 
communities indicated that they have tried a variety of adaptations to 
live with both floating and beaching sargassum (Table 1). 

In many cases adaptations involved taking action to cope with the 
negative impacts of the sargassum e.g. losing income, increasing work 
effort to generate the same income, or engaging in adaptations that 
reduce capacity such as food rationing or taking out loans to cover ex-
penses. The only preventative action trialed was beach clearance, 
although this was stopped once it was realized that the sargassum 

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problem was continuous and that the weeds returned regularly. 

We used to gather them and burn them… Even after burning them, more 
are washed ashore so we have stopped doing that (Small Community 2, 
adult male). 

Many of the adaptations tried by the communities could be consid-
ered maladaptive as they make the affected population even more 
vulnerable to recurrent impacts (Schipper, 2020). Most of the adapta-
tions in Table 1 were perceived to be ineffective by the communities 
themselves. When discussing their choices, the groups expressed a sense 
of helplessness and frustration in their inability to respond to the 
massive sargassum influxes. People returned to their feelings of lack of 
responsibility to do anything themselves due to the cause of the problem 
being beyond their control: 

We have told the people from the oil company, but they are not helping us, 
during the periods that we are unable to fish, they should help us with at 
least 100 cedis each. The drilling of oil has destroyed the livelihoods of 
fisherfolks, we are suffering, they should help us. (Medium Community, 
older male 3). 
Let’s halt the oil production for sometime and see whether the weeds will 
come or not. If the weeds don’t come, then we know they are not the 
cause. Then we can think of other solutions. (Medium Community, 
younger male 2). 

Respondents felt that they needed to confirm the causes of the 
sargassum before they could identify who should be acting to address 
the problem. Overall, the language in the groups pointed to both 
hopelessness, and a lack of perceived options available. 

Unlike affected communities in the Caribbean and Central America, 
in Ghana, preventative methods have not been considered to stop the 
beaching events, e.g. through the use of offshore collection and disposal 
(Chávez et al., 2021) or inflatable booms to protect important parts of 
the coast (Liranzo-Gómez et al., 2021). There is also no evidence of other 
beach management options such as mechanical removal (Oxenford 
et al., 2021), or leaving sargassum in situ to decompose and then support 
dune stabilization (Williams and Feagin, 2010). 

While there was an expression of desire to exploit the sargassum for 
profit, there was little perception of capacity within the community to 
do this. While one respondent enthusiastically asked for guidance on 
how to re-use it (Large Community chief fisherman), many were not 
confident in their ability to transform the seaweed into an opportunity: 

The weed has no use. It can’t be sold; I don’t think the weeds can be used 
for anything useful. If you have any knowledge about it, you can share it 
with me. If it could be used as manure to fertilize the soil for farming, we 
would have done that… if it is confirmed that it could be used for fertilizer, 
both the fisherfolks and farmers would collect the weeds and sell them. We 
will find ways of conveying the weeds to the farmlands. We will convey it 
to lands that are not fertile. (Large Community, chief fisherman) 

When asked about re-use opportunities, many respondents looked to 
outsiders for input: 

There is no company who comes for the weeds to make anything useful. 
We even pray that it becomes useful so we can gather them and sell to 
these companies for some money (Large Community, adult male) 
When the weed is fresh, it’s yellow, when it dries it turns black. If our 
brothers who make fertilizers can use their knowledge to help us make 
fertilizers here, most of us would stop fishing and get employed there. We 
are pleading with fertilizer makers to come and check whether the weeds 
could be used to make fertilizers (Large Community, young male) 

In general, the groups perceived that they lacked the knowledge or 
skills to use the sargassum for profit. They also perceived that they 
lacked the social networks and contacts to bring in people with the 
skillsets to re-use the sargassum. This perception of low self-efficacy 
contributed to their frustration and pessimism about the sargassum 
situation, but also points to the opportunity to explore the potential for 

re-use from the sargassum in West Africa. 

3.4.2. Coping responses 
Directly linked to community perceptions about responsibility 

(‘Others’ are to blame for the sargassum influxes) and risk (the threat is 
high, continuous and damaging), is the lack of perceived adaptation 
options. Communities perceive that there is little they can do them-
selves. Many of the coping responses suggested by respondents do not 
relate to the villagers themselves, but to actions of ‘Others’, notably the 
formal and traditional governments, and the oil and gas companies. 

Respondents articulated that the oil and gas companies should 
compensate the fisherfolk during the periods when the sargassum 
beaching volumes are higher and the fishers are unable to go fishing. 
This perception appears driven by the communities’ mistaken percep-
tions of links between the timing of the influx of sargassum and oil 
exploration activities, and their assessment of responsibility for the 
problem. 

They cannot prevent the weeds from coming… and we cannot do anything 
about it. What they [the oil and gas companies] can do is to give us some 
funds to help us survive when the weeds cause us not to go fishing. So, if 
they are going to explore the oil for three months, they need to give us 
funds to survive so that when they leave after the three months we can go 
back to fishing (Large Community, adult male). 
We have told the people from the oil company, but they are not helping us, 
during the periods that we are unable to fish, they should help us with at 
least 100 cedis each. The drilling of oil has destroyed the livelihoods of 
fisherfolks, we are suffering, they should help us. (Medium Community, 
older male 3) 

In Ghana there is both a formal Government and a traditional/ sys-
tem of governance (customary governance system led by traditional 
chiefs and elders). Respondents note that neither the formal govern-
ment, nor the chiefly system were yet providing support, advice or 
leadership for the problem. Various groups of respondents, particularly 
male, report that they receive no assistance from the government or 
other institutions to deal with the impacts of sargassum influx. They 
have through their unions or cooperatives and local authorities (district/ 
municipal assemblies) attempted to reach higher levels of formal gov-
ernment for support but with little success. 

We have gone to the Ministry of Fisheries and the Presidency. They told us 
to give them some time. To date, we have not heard from them both. Right 
now, it is a ‘do or die’ affair (Small Community 1, adult male) 
Those over there, all the drag fishermen have formed an association. So, 
the moment this began to disturb their work, they informed the municipal 
assembly about it and also sent letters to the Presidency and the Fisheries 
Ministry to draw their attention to the challenge they were facing from this 
issue. But since then, we are still waiting for a response from the gov-
ernment, but nothing has been done (Community Assemblyman). 

Traditional authorities are also not perceived to be supporting 
communities or leading the response to sargassum. When asked about 
the role of the chiefs in mobilizing support to deal with sargassum: 

I have never seen a chief who has put things in place to help us. Whether 
the weeds come or not, it is no concern of theirs (Small Community 2, 
adult male). 

The lack of reflection on adaptation could relate to the feelings of 
helplessness (a result of the failure of previous small-scale attempts at 
clearing the beaches), combined with a lack of external input or formal 
guidance on what to do: 

When the weeds come, we the fishermen only observe and wait till the 
weeds go back to the sea… It comes when it wants to, when in its peak 
season, it gathers on the shores and gets rotten naturally when the sun 
scorches it. So when it rots and vanishes, that is when we resume our 

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fishing activities but even that, we do not get any harvest (Large Com-
munity, adult male) 

Participants did not consider potential adaptations over different 
timescales which have been seen in other locations affected by 
sargassum, notably, long term risk mitigation e.g. moving away, getting 
insurance; cyclical preparedness e.g. awareness of seasonality and sea-
sonal plans, identifying alternative livelihoods during the worst periods 
of sargassum influx; response during events e.g. beach clearance, 
removal, collection, composting; and recovery e.g. engaging academia 
to explore management and re-use options, development of early 
warning systems, or engaging the private sector to identify alternative 
uses for the sargassum. 

4. Discussion 

A clear message that emerges from the data in western Ghana is that 
sargassum-affected communities (both men and women) do not appear 
to understand the biological nature of sargassum, its lifecycle and sea-
sonality, the causes of sargassum influxes, and how to manage it. Three 
factors identified in the study compound this misperception. First, the 
onset of offshore oil and gas exploration in Ghana was followed in close 
succession by the first major sargassum influx in 2011. It is important to 
reinforce that this perception does not align with available scientific 
evidence which attributes the initial seeding of pelagic sargassum in the 
tropical Atlantic to an initial anomalous weather event in winter 
2009–2010 (Johns et al., 2020) – see introduction. Second, across all 
communities, respondents incorrectly perceived that sargassum natu-
rally attaches to the seabed (i.e. it is a benthic macroalgae). This 
misunderstanding reinforces the belief that drilling for oil on the seabed 
disturbs the sargassum, causing it to float to the surface. This perception 
is not in line with scientific understanding of the life cycle of the pelagic 
sargassum affecting West Africa. Evidence clearly shows that sargassum 
spends its entire life afloat until it dies, when it decomposes and drops to 
the ocean floor (UNEP, 2021; Corbin and Oxenford, 2023). Given the 
longevity of the sargassum problem in the tropical Atlantic (now 
recurring annually for 12 years), and the massive growth in literatures 
exploring its cause and drivers of movement over that period (e.g. 
Chávez et al., 2020; Amador-Castro et al., 2021) it is surprising to find 
across the tropical Atlantic such different levels of community under-
standing of the nature of the seaweed and its causes, its management, 
possible adaptations and alternative uses for it. 

Perceptions of communities in coastal West Africa presented in this 
study highlight a divergence in understanding of sargassum among 
communities across the tropical Atlantic. It is useful here to compare 
community perceptions and locally relevant sources of information 
across the tropical Atlantic. Fact sheets and guidance, developed by 
regional universities and agencies representing the Americas and the 
Caribbean, on sargassum management were targeted at regionally 
relevant sectors e.g. fisheries (Doyle and Franks, 2015), local clean-up 
(Hinds et al., 2016), and tourism (CAST, 2015). Since then, studies on 
the impacts on communities, and their adaptations have continued in 
the Western Atlantic e.g. in Mexico (Chavez et al., 2020), the Dutch 
Caribbean (López-Contreras et al., 2021), and the wider Caribbean 
(Liranzo Gómez et al., 2021; Oxenford et al., 2021). The lack of com-
parable locally-relevant sources of information about sargassum, its 
impacts and adaptation options, appears to be an important knowledge 
gap creating management challenges in West Africa. 

There are many possible reasons for the lack of research on 
sargassum in West Africa. One significant challenge relates to the 
gathering evidence of distribution and movement of floating and 
beached sargassum. In coastal West Africa, unlike the Caribbean and 
Central America, remote-sensing data quality is poor for most of the year 
due to high levels of cloud cover (Knauer et al., 2012). That absence of 
large scale monitoring data leads to a reliance on local level and small 
scale data collection, which tends to be more costly and can create data 

gaps. To date, in contrast to the Caribbean and the Americas where 
sargassum forecast systems now proliferate (e.g. Wang and Hu, 2017; 
Marsh et al., 2022), there are no comparable studies estimating quan-
tities, volumes or seasonality of pelagic sargassum affecting West Africa. 
Lack of an understanding of magnitude of events, quantity and season-
ality is a significant barrier in itself to advancing other locally relevant 
work on sargassum. Hence, there are still many unknowns about the 
sargassum influxes in West Africa. 

This research finds that in line with work in the Caribbean and the 
Americas, sargassum can disrupt the main coastal economic activities 
(fishing and related activities) by breaking fishing gears and impeding 
mobility on the beach (Ramlogan et al., 2017; Solarin et al., 2014; Ofori 
and Rouleau, 2021). We show that there in western Ghana, there are 
multiple dimensions of economic loss associated with floating and 
beached sargassum, such as wasted fuel in fishing boats that return with 
no fish and unproductive time spent repairing fishing gear. Research 
gaps still remain in West Africa around quantifying the economic losses 
from lost fishing days, damages to fishing gear, and associated losses in 
the fisheries-related sector including fish processing, transport and 
retail. 

Our research also finds a gendered dimension to the experienced 
impacts in line with the traditionally gendered occupational and social 
roles in West Africa, which appears to diverge from findings in the 
Caribbean and Americas. Males in Ghana are predominantly affected 
through direct impacts on fishing activities (replacing and repairing 
damaged nets, waste of money on fuel, lost income), as well as through 
their social role as breadwinners. Traditional artisanal fishers also note 
the limited livelihood options they can resort to when unable to fish due 
to sargassum. The impacts on women, though differentiated, are inter-
linked with the direct impacts on fishers. Women’s livelihoods are 
mostly dependent on fishers’ ability to fish, so that any impact on fishers 
affects their ability to work and earn an income, thereby affecting many 
families which are dependent on marine-related livelihoods. This 
research highlights that the combination of livelihoods of coastal com-
munities and households shape their vulnerability to sargassum (Atiglo 
et al., 2022). Further research could explore how impacts on the main 
economic activities on which communities collectively depend for sur-
vival, affects shared senses of security, belongingness and identity 
(Tschakert et al., 2017). 

Finally, the application of PMT in this study has highlighted the main 
barriers in western Ghana to local scale action on adaptation to 
sargassum influxes, which are buried in beliefs about responsibility and 
capacity. Where the volume of beached sargassum is small, participant 
communities remove the weeds from the beach, but became frustrated 
when beaching was persistent or severe and when person-hours were 
perceived to be wasted. Communities affected by sargassum noted an 
absence of capacity to adapt: a lack of capacity to take specific action 
(adaptive capacity), a lack of ability to take any action (self-efficacy). 
These feelings of incapacity appear to come from a combination of sense 
of failure and learned helplessness from unsuccessful previous experi-
ences of local sargassum management; the magnitude of beaching 
events; perceptions of the drivers of the sargassum; and an attribution of 
responsibility to oil and gas companies or the government. Crucially, 
because of the various misunderstandings, some communities appear to 
perceive that the oil and gas companies should be taking action to 
address sargassum influxes, and that external support is needed. Both of 
these beliefs appear to be fueled by misperceptions of the drivers of 
sargassum. As Aerts et al (2018) note people’s perceptions of risks and 
their ability to cope is often ignored in environmental risk management. 
Yet ignoring community risk perceptions in relation to sargassum in 
West Africa appears to have exacerbated the way in which communities 
have experienced the impacts. 

5. Conclusion 

In this study, PMT has proven useful in structuring analysis of 

D. Yaw Atiglo et al.                                                                                                                                                                                                                            



Global Environmental Change 84 (2024) 102779

12

community adaptation to an emergent risk, drawing out the drivers of 
and barriers to proactive adaptation. Oil and gas exploration and 
extraction co-occur with sargassum influxes in the Gulf of Mexico and in 
West Africa, but the belief in a causal relationship between the two only 
continues to exist within West Africa (within participating communities 
in this study). This belief appears to have become entrenched over time. 
The social amplification of the message within the communities – that 
sargassum is caused by and proliferated by the oil and gas companies – is 
not being countered by clear and believable messaging from elsewhere. 
As a result, the belief has become embedded that oil and gas companies 
are responsible for: all aspects of clear up, alternative livelihood provi-
sioning and management of sargassum. This belief is entwined with a 
lack of community willingness to engage with sargassum to improve 
management or to investigate possible business opportunities. Given the 
urgent need to ratchet up adaptation activity as part of the Paris 
Agreement (Tompkins et al., 2018), we conclude that the PMT offers a 
practical and critical research approach to household and community 
scale adaptation that usefully draws out drivers of adaptation and 
highlight areas for increased action. 

For this case study, obvious policy lessons emerge by comparing 
findings from West Africa with findings from the Caribbean and the 
Americas. A first priority for West Africa is the rapid development of 
large-scale monitoring of the seasonality and magnitude of annual 
sargassum arrivals. A second priority is the development, with the 
affected communities, of sectoral guidance (fisheries and fisheries- 
related) on management and re-use opportunities from both floating 
and beaching sargassum. In Ghana, due to the (now) longstanding ten-
sions between communities and oil and gas companies as a result of 
other conflicts e.g. access to fishing grounds, cooperation needs to be 
developed in finding solutions to the sargassum problem. It is the not 
aim of this paper to identify how to heal rifts between oil and gas 
exploration and extraction companies and adjacent communities – there 
is already a large, accessible and West African facing literature on how 
to do so (e.g. Mohammed et al., 2022b). Instead, we see opportunities 
initially for the oil and gas companies in researching how their sector 
might be affected by sargassum inundations, and then for collaboration 
between the extraction companies, the government and communities in 
encouraging and supporting entrepreneurship in monitoring the 
sargassum, re-using the sargassum locally, and potentially in developing 
supply chains to support industries using sargassum. There is relevance 
here for any new or emergent climate or environmental risk that is 
affecting communities already perceiving stress from another cause. The 
perceived stress has to be addressed in parallel to the collation of evi-
dence about the new risk. The sharing of knowledge between affected 
sectors and communities can inform the wider process of sargassum risk 
management (van der Plank et al., 2022). Without a collaborative 
community-government-industry approach to knowledge collation, in-
formation, data and experience sharing and use of trusted lines of 
communication, it is unlikely that improvements will be seen in how 
saragssum is managed in West Africa. 

Sargassum influxes are unlikely to be the last emerging risk co- 
created by human activity and climate change for coastal nations. 
Developing generic management strategies to respond to novel emer-
gent risks, such as sargassum, could potentially support all countries 
better prepare for the surprises that are likely to affect us into the future. 
From this work, and drawing on lessons from the Caribbean and the 
Americas, we propose the following strategy to other nuisance sea-
weeds, and environmental emergent risks: start with rapid assessments 
of the spatial and temporal distribution of the problem; assess and share 
estimates of potential seasonality, magnitude and frequency; invest in 
early sectoral and community impact assessments to identify key issues; 
encourage research and development in local and regional universities; 
use locally appropriate routes to investigate simple innovation and re- 
use potential; create a freely accessible information portal and 
regional network for quickly sharing all evidence, knowledge and 
guidance. Action is needed by all actors with research capacity (regional 

bodies, governments, universities, NGOs etc) to prepare to be rapidly 
responsive to new risks and hazards as we move further into an 
Anthropocene increasingly dominated by climate change. 

CRediT authorship contribution statement 

D. Yaw Atiglo: Conceptualization, Methodology, Project adminis-
tration, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft. Philip- Neri Jayson- 
Quashigah: Writing – original draft, Project administration. Winnie 
Sowah: Visualization, Writing – review & editing. Emma L. Tompkins: 
Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Writing – review & editing. 
Kwasi Appeaning Addo: Supervision, Funding acquisition, Writing – 
review & editing. 

Declaration of competing interest 

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial 
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence 
the work reported in this paper. 

Data availability 

The data that has been used is confidential. 

Acknowledgements 

This publication is supported by Economic and Social Research 
Council GCRF (Grant number: ES/T002964/1). This study sought and 
received ethical approval from the Ethics Committees within the College 
of Basic and Applied Sciences, University of Ghana, and the School of 
Geography & Environmental Sciences at the University of Southampton. 
The authors would like to acknowledge the supported provided by Mr 
Jonas Dzeble with data collection and management. We would also like 
to thank two anonymous reviewers, whose in-depth review offered 
extensive guidance on how to improve the first and second submitted 
drafts of this paper. Their significant input substantially improved the 
narrative and quality of this paper. However, any remaining errors 
remain the authors own. 

Appendix A. Supplementary data 

Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi. 
org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2023.102779. 

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