Some 6,000 barrels of crude spilled into the sea last Saturday while an oil tanker unloaded at the La Pampilla refinery, 30 km north of Lima.
The spill of thousands of barrels of crude oil on the central coast of Peru left a grim balance: dead birds floating in the sea or covered in oil on rocks unable to fly, while fishermen on the docks cannot work.
Some 6,000 barrels of crude oil spilled into the sea last Saturday while an oil tanker unloaded at the La Pampilla refinery, located in Ventanilla, 30 km north of Lima, owned by the Spanish oil company Repsol. The company attributed the accident to waves caused by the volcanic eruption in Tonga.
“In full swing they cut off our arms,” fisherman Bernardo Espinoza tells AFP uneasily, noting that he and his colleagues were unable to work in the middle of the southern summer, the time when they traditionally sell more fish.
“We can’t work […], we are already taking out the last resources [ahorros], the last ones, we are already doing what we can”, adds Espinoza, a fisherman for 50 years in Ancón Bay, 45 km north of Lima.
Sea currents have spread the oil along the coast to more than 40 kilometers from the refinery, affecting 21 beaches, according to the Ministry of Health, which recommended that people not go to them because they are rated “unhealthy.” Oil cleanup brigades have replaced bathers in Ancón and other popular Peruvian resorts.
Beaches and marine fauna affected in Peru by oil spill
AFP journalists observed the huge oil stains on the surface of the sea and dead birds floating in the water, on a tour of the Bay of Ancón aboard the boat “Rey de Petita”, which before the spill took tourists for a ride.
“They have attacked wildlife and life, [y] the work, of what a fisherman is”, says the captain of this small boat, Rodney Vásquez, 30, who has lived his whole life near the sea and is the son of a fisherman.
For his part, fisherman Alfredo Roque indicates that the difficulties for fishing in this area will last a long time, since many newborn fish have died due to the spill.
“The babies [de los peces adultos] they are already dead, most of the hatchlings eat on the seashore, and the seashore is full of oil”, explains to AFP.
In addition to the fishermen, other people who lived from activities linked to the beaches were left without income: restaurant owners and employees, those who rent umbrellas and those who sell food and soft drinks to bathers.
“Nothing for sale”
On the Ancón pier, only the crew members of larger vessels that fish on the high seas continue to work, while the fish stalls are empty, because there are no longer any customers.
“Nothing is sold {…], more than anything fish comes out with the smell of oil, and people don’t buy, they don’t consume because they are afraid of getting intoxicated because of that, because of the oil spill,” says Giovana Rugel, 52 years old, who sells fish at the entrance to the Ancón pier.
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Now the only occupants of the beaches of Ancón and the other affected resorts are the cleaning brigades, made up of soldiers, personnel hired by the oil company and volunteers from AMAAC Peru and other onegés.
The spill was described as an “ecological disaster” by the government, but Repsol affirms that it was not responsible, since the Peruvian maritime authorities did not issue warnings about a possible increase in the waves after the eruption in Tonga.
The brigade members, who began their task on Tuesday, wear white biosafety suits and latex gloves. They use shovels to remove the oil-impregnated sand, which is then trucked to toxic waste dumps.
This task is carried out manually and nobody knows when the cleanup will end on the entire affected coast.
Peru on Wednesday demanded that Repsol “compensate” for the damage caused by the spill of 6,000 barrels of crude oil. The Ministry of the Environment indicated that more than 174 hectares (equivalent to about 270 soccer fields) were affected in the strip of beaches and 118 of surface in the sea.
The spill occurred during the process of unloading the Italian-flagged tanker “Mare Doricum”, whose departure was prohibited by the Peruvian government unless a bail letter of some 39 million dollars is presented, or until investigations into the incident are completed. the spill. (I)
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