Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Caribbean Brings Garbage to Shores of Tortuga Island

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CARACAS, Aug 4 2008 (IPS) - The sea is the vehicle for pollution of the islands of the southern Caribbean, even the nearly uninhabited ones like La Tortuga, located 150 kilometers northeast of the Venezuelan capital. “Tons of garbage appear on the 100 kilometers of the island’s beaches, from cigarette butts to dresses and shoes, and any kind of container, whether it’s plastic, metal or glass,” Alberto Boscari, president of La Tortuga Foundation, told Tierramérica.

Much of the waste “comes from other countries, carried by the tides, and can be lethal to fauna, like the numerous species of turtles that give the island its name, and which ingest the garbage, causing damage to the digestive tract and drowning them,” said Boscari.

Volunteers from the Foundation clean up the beaches and make an effort to recycle the materials they collect, but their efforts can’t keep up with the garbage.