One of the most beautiful beaches in Brazil stained by oil

(Rio de Janeiro) The mysterious oil pollution that sullied nearly 2,000 kilometers of coastline in northeastern Brazil on Friday reached Carneiros beach, considered one of the most paradisiacal in the country.

Posted on October 18, 2019 at 3:42 pm

France Media Agency

On impressive images from the TV Globo channel, dozens of volunteers were mobilized to remove oil patches by hand covering almost all kilometers of this stretch of fine sand lined with coconut trees.

The beach of Carneiros, tourist hotspot in the south of the state of Pernambuco, is regularly cited as being one of the most beautiful in Brazil.

With its turquoise waters and exuberant vegetation, it even appeared in twelfth position of a ranking of the most beautiful beaches in the world established by Internet users of the website Tripadvisor in 2014.

Local authorities feared that the oil slicks would reach the seaside city of Porto de Galinhas, one of the busiest in Brazil.

Beyond the beaches, specialists are worried about the pollution of coral reefs and mangroves, which are much harder to clean.

On Thursday, the state government of Alagoas, one of the poorest in Brazil, announced that a service responsible for the reintegration of detainees had already mobilized forty of them for a cleaning operation of the beach of Japaratinga .

According to public environmental agency Ibama, this pollution has already reached 187 localities in the nine states of northeastern Brazil.

Prosecutors from all nine states on Friday called for a court ruling that would force the federal government to put in place a national contingency plan in the face of Brazil's "worst environmental disaster in coastal history".

The causes of this pollution have not yet been determined, although analysis of samples confirmed that the oil was of Venezuelan origin.

Investigators are investigating, among other things, the possibility of a leak from a "ghost oil tanker" that smuggled oil because of the US-imposed oil embargo on Venezuela.

The G1 news website mentioned a preliminary study by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro that the starting point for the oil slick could be 700 km from the coast.