Oil spill threatens vast areas of mangroves and coral reefs in Brazil

atlantic-forest-brazil
Brazil, pristine Atlantic coast. Photograph: © SAF — Coastal Care

Excerpts;

Hundreds of kilometres of mangroves and coral reefs, as well as humpback whale breeding grounds, are under threat from an oil spill that has polluted more than 2,400km of Brazil’s north-eastern coast in the last two months…

Brazil’s government environment agency, Ibama, has counted 126 marine creatures affected; the oil has reached the Abrolhos Marine national park off the coast of Bahia state – a reserve that includes an archipelago, extensive coral reefs, humpback whale breeding grounds and the South Atlantic’s biggest concentration of marine biodiversity…

Read Full Article; Guardian UK (11-07-2019)

Brazilians rally to clean beaches amid outrage at Bolsonaro’s oil spill inaction; Guardian UK (10-22-2019)
Nobody knows where the oil is from or why it keeps washing up on Brazilian beaches. “People in the north-east are cleaning the oil from the coast with their own hands while the federal government is immobile…”

Scientists rush to rescue sea turtles threatened by mysterious Brazil oil spill; PRI (10-15-2019)
Crude oil has been washing up along a 1,200-mile stretch of coastline of the Brazilian northeast for over a month, leaving more than 150 of Brazil’s postcard-perfect beaches covered in thick, sludgy black patches. It is also along this coastline that olive ridley and loggerhead sea turtles come to make their nests and lay their eggs…

Mysterious Oil Spill Becomes New Environmental Crisis for Brazil; The NYT (10-08-2019)
A mysterious oil spill that has polluted shores along a vast area of Brazil’s northeast may have resulted from unspecified criminal activity. An estimated 100 tons of crude has drifted toward land since early September, polluting some of the country’s most pristine beaches…

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