LIMA ( Associated Press) – Peruvian fishermen hit by a major oil spill in the Pacific on Wednesday soaked a statue of San Pedro, their patron saint, in those waters, calling on officials to pay more attention to what is believed to be the worst ecological disaster goes. Country. South American.
Fishermen – who celebrate the days of San Pedro and San Pablo – ate a dish made of fish marinated in lemon that they bought from other regions, where 11,900 barrels of crude oil spilled in front of a refinery in mid-January had not happened. At Repsol in Lima.
“It is very sad for us that our seas are contaminated, that the fish we used to catch are no longer fish,” said Miguel Nez, president of the Association of Fishermen, Shipowners and Artisan Stevedores, founder of Bahia Blanca Beach. he said. ,
Affected people asked the government to support them in their fight so that energy company Repsol would compensate them for the time they stopped fishing and it affected them financially. Many of them have sought alternative jobs and others sometimes go fishing for 200 kms.
Kiefer Taboda, a 25-year-old shellfish diver, retrieves a statue of St. Peter that his colleagues had turned ashore and lowered it into the Pacific Ocean, while other fishermen and environmental activists watch from the beach.
“After the oil spill, the weather has turned tough, we have practically nothing to support ourselves,” he said.
Taboda, who used to sell shellfish in restaurants, now scours the seashore for lead pieces for resale and also offers scuba diving lessons.
Fisherman Walter de la Cruz, who was fishing in front of the Lima town of Ciudad Pachacutec, said the oil spill had forced him to travel 200 kilometers south to a town called Tambo de Mora, where he found the beach. I sleep in Abandoned boats on the beach. There he fishes for three or four days in a row, then sells his fish and returns to Lima.
In other Peruvian coastal areas where the oil spill had no effect, the day was celebrated as the patron saint of fishermen. In the city of Pucusana, south of Lima, neighbors moved to San Pedro and even put her on a boat that headed into the Pacific Ocean.
The leak occurred on January 15 in the Pacific during the discharge of oil from an Italian ship owned by the company Fratelli d’Amico Armatori SpA, towards the Repsol refinery, located off the coast of the Peruvian capital. The spill affected an area slightly larger than the city of Paris. Repsol calculated the impact to be 106 square kilometres.
Repsol has accused the ship of the outbreak, while Fratelli d’Amico Armatori S.p.A., – the ship’s owners – has asked not to provide “false or misleading” information as the prosecution continues to investigate.
Peru is suing Repsol in a local civil court for about $4.5 billion in damages. The Spanish energy company describes demand as unfounded because the estimates “lack the modest basis to support the indicated figures.”
