Brazilian activist and fisherman Alexandre Anderson steers his boat with one hand and films an oil slick spreading in Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro with the other.
He will upload the video to an app designed to expose environmental damage in the famous bay, which is crucial to tourism and the fishing industry but is plagued by oil and chemical spills and untreated sewage.
Guanabara Bay, a natural harbor covering about 400 square kilometers, struggles not only with pollution from incoming ships and oil rig accidents, but also from old ships abandoned in its waters and runoff water from cities.
Frustrated by what they saw as a lack of official response, the bay’s fishermen decided to take matters into their own hands and, with the support of the non-governmental organization 350.org, had an app developed for themselves.
“We used to take pictures with our phone or a camera,” but without accurate geolocation data that was of little help, Anderson, chairman of the bay-based fishing association Ahomar, told AFP as he filmed a steady stream of sewage being discharged from a ship.
The app, on the other hand, “provides me with the exact” data with which I can submit a complaint anonymously.
The information is reviewed by a moderator and published on a special website, before being reported to authorities such as the country’s environmental agency Ibama or the Brazilian Navy, which patrols the bay.
Every time he monitors the dark waters for just a few hours, Anderson comes across several illegal oil spills, he says.
Within three weeks of the app’s launch on July 26, 20 complaints were posted online, according to administrators, and over 100 more are currently being reviewed.
– “Practically” no more sea bass and hake –
“The inspection authorities have always claimed that they do not have the necessary tools to handle the complaints,” says Paulo Barone, who belongs to another local fishermen’s association.
But with this new app, he said, authorities “can no longer deny or ignore” the complaints.
For Luiz Afonso Rosario, the Brazil coordinator of 350.org, artisanal fishermen have been on the front line for too long.
“Oil and gas companies are not only polluting the waters that provide food, income and recreation for thousands of families, they are also exacerbating the climate crisis … by supplying fossil fuels, which are the primary cause of global warming,” he said.
The fishermen were hit particularly hard by an oil spill in 2000, when 1.3 million liters of oil from a Petrobras refinery entered the bay.
“That was the end of fishing. You can hardly find any sea bass or hake anymore,” says Roberto Marques Resende, who still fishes in the region.
For some, this fight is about more than just survival.
Anderson, who has been fighting against the petrochemical industry for years, says he has been the target of threats and attacks for years and hopes that the app will help ensure that “those responsible are actually punished.”
“Only then will we solve these problems,” he said.
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