Monday, June 23, 2025

Are the beaches really clean? Don’t count on it, biologist warns

Beaches in Mexico may not be as safe as the federal government claims because their waters are tested with samples taken at least two weeks before the data is published, and the nation’s standards are far more lax than those set by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Marine biologist Alejandro Olivera Bonilla, the representative in Mexico of the Center for Biological Diversity, told the newspaper Excélsior that the samples do not offer a current snapshot of water quality, as conditions at sea change from one moment to the next.

Those conditions can change significantly when one takes into consideration that thousands of families are hitting the beaches this week during their Easter vacation, meaning that the presence of fecal coliforms will increase.

On top of that, he said “. . . the country’s maximum allowed limits [of fecal coliforms in seawater] do not correspond to the limits set by the WHO, as international regulations establish the limit as 100 fecal coliforms per 100 milliliters of water . . .”

Mexico’s limit is twice that, at 200 fecal coliforms per 100 milliliters.

In the United States the limit is 33 and in Canada, 35.

As an alternative to the federal government offering outdated water quality data, Olivera proposed that local environmental and health authorities conduct their own testing and publish current data.

Lists of Mexico’s cleanest and dirtiest beaches have been published in the past week.

Source: Excélsior (sp)

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
An AI robot hand reaches out to touch a human hand

How do we make sure that AI doesn’t make us dumber? A perspective from our CEO

11
AI can make us smarter or it can make us lazier. CEO Travis Bembenek shares how Mexico News Daily is working to offer readers the good kind of AI.
A screwworm fly, possibly

Fight against screwworm ramps up with reopening of sterile fly plant in Chiapas

0
Sterile flies were key to Mexico's past success in exterminating screwworm. Now that the pest is back, the US is offering $21 million to reopen the production facility.
CJNG cartel leaders El Mencho and Ricardo Ruiz

US sanctions CJNG leaders, citing TikTok influencer’s murder

3
People in the United States are now blocked from any transaction involving property that the five sanctioned cartel leaders have an interest in.