Almost two months have passed since a thick black sludge was first seen in the Pernambuco coast; Still, the government of Brazil hasn’t found the main factor of the oil spillage. As a result, it keeps infecting the shores in northeastern Brazil and polluting more than 100 beaches, counting some of the country’s most popular.
With the pollution causes remaining unclear, the government and the university labs continue investigating the situation. But, there are many theories heard, one of them is that the oil doesn’t originate from Brazil, and it might comes from waters outside of Brazil.
According to Reuters, an initial report by Petrobras company, samples that have been examined, showed the same properties as Venezuelan oil. Brazil’s navy has also conducted an analysis that confirmed the oil was from Venezuela. Although, the Brazilian government doesn’t blame Venezuela for this matter and Venezuela categorically denied any involvement in the pollution.
Another possible theory from the Brazilian navy, is that this spillage may be the result of a “ship-to-ship” transfer that ended unsuccessfully. However, is difficult to prove it was ship-to-ship fault without physical evidence or relevant records from service providers.
Whatever are the main origins, the oil spill response efforts, have an uncommon difficulty to face, since the spill floats below the surface, instead of sitting on the top of it. This automatically makes it invisible, unmappable and immune to normal containment barriers.
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Volunteer groups and local citizens collaborated in order to clean up the beaches by shovels and by hand. More than 1,500 military personnel have been helping, and the last week Bolsonaro dispatched 5,000 more service members to give a hand in the oil removal efforts.
Moreover, the region’s estimated that the spillage will also damage about 130,000 fishermen, since the effects of this oil contamination on local fisheries and the health implications of consuming any tainted seafood are still unknown, but initial testing suggests widespread damage to marine life in coastal waters.
Unfortunately, about 4,000 barrels of oil have been already removed, but sadly teams also found dead seabirds, turtles, and dolphins covered in oil.