In Brazil, an app helps fishermen denounce pollution

The telephone as a "weapon" against ocean pollution: Brazilian Alexandre Anderson, president of an association of committed fishermen, records images of a stain on an application oil in Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro.

Thanks to the application “De Olho na Guanabara” (an eye on Guanabara), Developed by his association, Ahomar, and the NGO 350.org, fishermen can report environmental violations, such as oil leaks or chemical discharges.

The iconic Guanabara Bay, which stretches over 400 km2, has long been polluted by the influx of wastewater from the Rio metropolitan area, Brazil's second most populous city with more than six million inhabitants.

The situation is further aggravated by the presence of wrecks stranded and the fact that the bay is exposed to risks of incidents linked to the transport or oil refining facilities in the surrounding area.

“Before, we just took pictures with our phone or with a camera, but we didn't have the exact location,” Alexandre Anderson told AFP, while filming murky water escaping from a pipe exiting the hull of a cargo ship.

“Now the app provides the precise location needed” to report violations, he continues, after immortalizing what appears to be an inappropriate discharge of ballast water, used to stabilize ships.

In a few hours of navigation in the dark waters of Bahia de Guanabara, Alexandre Anderson identified all sorts of oil residues and chemicals irregularly discharged into the ocean.

Pollution in Guanabara Bay, August 1, 2024, in Rio de Janeiro © AFP – Pablo PORCIUNCULA

“It's oil, it's paint. The ships pollute, the tugboats pollute, the platforms pollute and the refinery we have here also pollutes,” he explains.

The application allows fishermen who are members of the Ahomar association to enter images of these reports anonymously. They are then checked by a moderator and then published on a website.

Three weeks after the launch of the application, on July 26, around twenty denunciations had been published and around a hundred others are currently being analyzed.

This information can be used by authorities, including the public environmental protection agency Ibama, to impose fines or demand legal action.

– “On the front lines” –

The aim is to facilitate this task of monitoring the bay, which fishermen have been doing for a long time.

“The monitoring bodies have always said they lacked resources,” says Paulo Barone, president of the fishermen's association of Paqueta Island, located in the heart of the bay. Thanks to this new tool, the authorities “can no longer turn a blind eye.”

Paulo Barone, president of the Paqueta Island fishermen's association, on August 1, 2024, in Rio de Janeiro © AFP – Pablo PORCIUNCULA

“Artisanal fishermen have been at the forefront of denouncing the pollution of Guanabara Bay for decades,” adds Luiz Afonso Rosario, coordinator of 350.org in Brazil.

Fishermen still remember the oil spill caused in 2000 by a leak at a Petrobras refinery that spilled 1.3 million liters of oil into the bay.

“It has destroyed fishing. We can hardly find any sea bass or hake anymore,” laments Roberto Marques Resende, a fisherman in the region.

– Perilous mission –

In this fight against the pollution of the bay, some risk their lives, like Alexandre Anderson, who has stood up for years against petrochemical activities in the region.

Alexandre Anderson de Souza, president of the Ahomar association, on August 1, 2024, in Rio de Janeiro © AFP – Pablo PORCIUNCULA

This activist and his wife entered the Brazilian government's Human Rights Defenders Protection Program in 2009, after the assassination of four of their fellow activists. He himself has been threatened. And according to him, the launch of the application only “increases the risks”.

Not enough to discourage him. “Today, fishermen have this weapon to protect the environment,” he says.

“The only solution is to denounce and ensure that those responsible are truly punished,” he concludes.

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