Members of the Vida Milenaria Turtle Encampment along with personnel from government agencies cleaned more than five kilometers of coastline in Tecolutla, Veracruz, where hundreds of kilos of tar washed ashore this week.

Tourists, businesses and environmentalists began reporting sightings of the hydrocarbon goo in the middle of the week.

Irma Elizabeth Galván, director of the encampment, said that representatives of the environmental protection agency Profepa took samples before beginning the clean-up. As tar continues to wash ashore, workers expect to keep cleaning the beach in the coming days.

Beach cleaners include personnel from Pemex, the Ministry of National Defense, the Tecolutla port captain’s office and others.

“We are still unsure of the cause or origin of these hydrocarbon patches, we are awaiting the response of the authorities in that respect. Meanwhile, we continue our work cleaning and patrolling the beach looking for turtles,” Galván said on social media.

On Friday as the cleaners worked, a turtle emerged from the ocean to lay its eggs, an event that Galván said underlines “the necessity of the clean-up, since this is a nest-laying zone and we’re in the middle of the season in which they arrive.”

Source: Milenio (sp)