Rebeca Reyes furiously scrubbed black tar from her kids’ arms after they swam in waters tainted by crude oil during a recent outing to Venezuela’s Punta Cardon beach.
A breach in an undersea pipeline owned by state-run oil company PDVSA that had gushed for at least 10 days before being sealed was the cause, leaving an oil slick that floated over fishing grounds, coating nets and fouling boat engines before washing onto the shores of western Venezuela’s Falcon state.
“The oil spill has killed our job, our fishing ground and the shrimp farms,” said Samuel Ortiz, a fisherman who represents workers there. “This spill is punching us on the stomach, on the pockets.”
The leak affected about 500 fishermen in some 10 communities, the workers said, their nets, fish and shrimp catches coated with oil.
Read more:
https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/venezuelas-coastal-villages-fisherman-suffer-oil-spills-rise-2021-10-06/