The Rio dos Bugres river in Brazil's Sao Paulo state has one of the world's highest concentrations of microplastic pollution, a new study has found, raising concerns among scientists and local fishermen. - REUTERS
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00This river in Brazil's Sao Paulo state has one of the world's highest concentrations of microplastic pollution, according to a new study.
00:10Its findings are raising concerns among scientists and local fishermen.
00:19Pollution has had a big impact, because if I took a trip 10 years ago, I would catch 10 kilograms, and today I catch 5 kilograms.
00:26The quantity, variety, and quality of fish diminish drastically.
00:31The study was conducted by Brazil's Nuclear and Energy Research Institute and local environmental NGO, the Ecofaxina Institute.
00:40Researchers discovered upwards of 93,000 microplastic particles per kilogram of sediment in the Rio dos Bugres River.
00:48Marine biologist William Rodriguez, who led the study, says that samples were collected from 10 locations throughout the Santos-Sauvicente estuary system between April and July 2018.
01:01The contamination of microplastics has severely impacted local fishing communities.
01:07Fisherman Rafael André Nurato says he's seen the decline of fish firsthand.
01:12I used to live off fishing because it was possible. I could live off fishing alone. There was a shrimp season and a crab season. Every three months, there was a different fishing season, so I could live off of it. Nowadays, there is very little.
01:28Researchers are attributing the high concentration of microplastics, fragments smaller than five millimeters, to multiple sources.
01:36That includes stilt houses along the river, petrochemical industry waste, and improper disposal of plastic products.
01:45Rodriguez says the river may already have a solution to help purify it of pollution.
01:51What will bring about the purification of all this pollution would be the recovery of the mangrove itself.
01:59The mangrove has a cycle of nutrients and sediment, which enables the mangrove itself to act.
02:06It returns to its function as a great biological filter, carrying out all this purification of all the organic matter and pollutants present in the sediment.