The head of the Secretariat of the Navy (Semar), Raymundo Pedro Morales, stated that all beaches affected by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico are clean and ready to receive tourists during Holy Week.
“We can say that all the most tourist-heavy beaches are clean, the population can have confidence in visiting these beaches, especially during Holy Week,” he expressed at a press conference by the interdisciplinary group in charge of addressing the spill.
He added that the department will maintain flights and personnel deployed along the 600 kilometers of coastline of the Gulf of Mexico “to immediately respond to any arrival of hydrocarbons and thus prevent damage to the environment and affectation to the beaches.”
Semar reported that the hydrocarbons that contaminated the Gulf of Mexico come from three sources: an illegal discharge in the anchorage area of the port of Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, made by a vessel on March 3; and two oil seeps, one located five miles from the illegal discharge and another 60 miles from the Cantarell Oil Field in Campeche.
Morales announced that they are investigating 13 vessels that were in the area to identify the responsible party. Of these, he explained, four are still sailing in Mexican waters, “and the Mexican Navy in its capacity as a coast guard is inspecting them to determine responsibilities”; and nine are sailing in international waters, for which the Navy requested international cooperation to inspect them.
He attributed the oil seeps, mainly those from the Cantarell Oil Field, to the emission of the majority of pollutants, which, due to the winds and currents towards the northwest, have spread over more than 200 kilometers of coastline of Veracruz, Tabasco, and Tamaulipas.
He added that although the oil seeps of the Cantarell Oil Field are natural and permanent, “there has been and a greater flow of pollutants has been detected in the last month,” so the department is placing, in collaboration with Pemex, marine barriers to contain the pollutants in place and prevent them from reaching the beaches.
Alicia Bárcena, head of the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources, said that the Agency for Security, Energy, and the Environment is filing the corresponding complaints with the Attorney General's Office against whoever is found responsible and announced that they will carry out a characterization of the vulnerability of the ecosystems of the Veracruz reef system national park to determine the environmental damage, which she said is currently “ruled out to be severe.”
Mariana Boy, head of the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection, specified that they have attended to six specimens with the presence of hydrocarbons: three turtles and three birds that have already been released.
