The Gulf of Coro and the Paraguaná Peninsula are affected by four active oil spills that have been recorded by fishermen from Punta Cardón and Río Seco in the state of Falcón since last Friday, September 21st.
By Irene Revilla/ Correspondent lapatilla.com
A video was recorded of how the crude oil has already reached the shore of Río Seco in western Falcón and stained the entire beach, the oil can be seen sunk and covering the bottom (MOSSFA or marine oil snow sedimentation and flocculent accumulation), which means that it has been in the water for days, it cooled down and went to the bottom of the sea, causing immediate and long-term damage.
Although the fishermen do not know the magnitude of the spill, they recorded the situation on video to alert Pdvsa about this new event that affects marine biodiversity, as well as the settlements that live off artisanal fishing in these areas.
The biologist and university professor, Eduardo Klein, who monitors crude oil spills in Venezuela through satellite images, reported through his social networks that there are four active spills, one of them off the coast of Punta Cardón, on the Paraguaná Peninsula, and three others near Río Seco and Mitare on the west coast of Falcón.
This incident adds to the incalculable amount of crude oil that has spilled on the Gulf of Coro since November 2019, when the problem began to be reported through fishermen who used the local media to report these events.
After countless meetings between the leaders of the fishing communities and the regional and national governments, a study was initiated in the Gulf at the end of 2023 to determine the damage caused to the ecosystem and devise ways to reverse it, but to date the results and actions to be applied are not known.
What is the Gulf of Coro?
The state of Falcón is bordered to the north and west by the Gulf of Venezuela, the Caribbean Sea (Atlantic Ocean) and the leeward group of the Netherlands Antilles (Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire); to the east by the Golfo Triste (Caribbean Sea); to the south by the states of Yaracuy and Lara, and to the west by the state of Zulia. It has 685 kilometers of coastline, which means 25.20% of the 2,718 kilometers of coastline that Venezuela has.
The Golfete de Coro receives more than 20 types of migratory birds that use these spaces for feeding and resting. Shrimp breeding in natural pools prevails in the area; it also has the Maragüey and Caimán points, which are two bars that extend in a southeast-northwest direction from the coast and are formed by the contributions of sediments from the mouth of the Mitare River, west of the Golfete de Coro.
Both have large extensions of intertidal plains bordered to the west by mangrove ecosystems, where the Black Mangrove (Avicennia germinans) predominates, and a bar to the east that separates the intertidal zone from the sandy beach.
These sites receive large concentrations of shorebirds of various species, including the Rufous-breasted Sandpiper (Calidris canutus rufa), the Thick-billed Plover (Charadrius wilsonia wilsonia) and the Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus), which come to replenish the energy and nutrients necessary to continue their annual migration, according to research from the Central University of Venezuela.
Why are there oil spills?
El Golfete is crossed from Zulia State to the Paraguaná Peninsula by at least seven underwater pipelines that supply the Amuay and Cardón refineries. As these were built a very long time ago, more than 70 years, coupled with the lack of preventive maintenance and neglect, this causes the already corroded pipelines to break and spill the crude oil into the sea.
“The truth is that the breaks on themselves are rather small, but the pressure of the oil plus the days that it lasts leaking, have made the contamination strong. Pdvsa does not immediately address the situation, they find out because we as fishermen see the gas or oil leaks, we record these and send it to the local leaders, and they forward these to Pdvsa. It can take weeks until they send a commission to inspect the leak and some more days for them to send it to be repaired. The fact is that these pipelines can no longer hold up. In recent years we have lost count of the times they have been repaired and they still open up somewhere else. They are already useless,” said a fisherman from Punta Cardón.
Aid and days
With Pedro Tellechea as president of PDVSA, there was attention paid to the fishermen. They say that they were favored by healthcare attention days and that part of those affected were also reimbursed, as an aid for the damages caused in the Golfete de Coro. However, they are still waiting for other promises that they hope the new board will fulfill.
In Punta Cardón, fishing has decreased due to crude oil spills, but also due to waste from the Amuay and Cardón refineries. The waters near the refinery complex look oily and the sand has also changed color. The results of the environmental studies are still awaited to see how the fishermen will have to support the recovery of the marine ecosystem. It is estimated that some 10,000 families live off artisanal fishing, which is one of the three most important economic activities in the region.
#21Sep CUATRO fugas de petróleo en los oleoductos submarinos de #PDVSA en #RioSeco #Paraguaná. Si, cuatro al mismo tiempo. Como siempre digo, esos tubos son un colador. Y la monistra de #PDVSA que dice? y el @MinecOficial ? Nada. Los pescadores son los mas afectados pic.twitter.com/VGQtS0h7uV
— diodon histrix (@diodon321) September 21, 2024