Zürcher Nachrichten - Discarded plastic blights Honduran mangrove island

EUR -
AED 4.104397
AFN 76.945413
ALL 99.231189
AMD 432.617988
ANG 2.010719
AOA 1036.724537
ARS 1074.259252
AUD 1.641361
AWG 2.011389
AZN 1.904081
BAM 1.955429
BBD 2.252673
BDT 133.324726
BGN 1.955529
BHD 0.42042
BIF 3234.286875
BMD 1.117438
BND 1.441627
BOB 7.709539
BRL 6.055052
BSD 1.115688
BTN 93.249023
BWP 14.748204
BYN 3.651208
BYR 21901.788071
BZD 2.248874
CAD 1.517202
CDF 3208.165381
CHF 0.950204
CLF 0.037689
CLP 1039.944272
CNY 7.880067
CNH 7.870123
COP 4641.820049
CRC 578.89026
CUC 1.117438
CUP 29.612111
CVE 110.244101
CZK 25.088056
DJF 198.672338
DKK 7.466767
DOP 66.967305
DZD 147.657009
EGP 54.142736
ERN 16.761573
ETB 129.466357
FJD 2.459262
FKP 0.850995
GBP 0.839107
GEL 3.051043
GGP 0.850995
GHS 17.539675
GIP 0.850995
GMD 76.548818
GNF 9639.172699
GTQ 8.624365
GYD 233.395755
HKD 8.706352
HNL 27.675753
HRK 7.597474
HTG 147.212093
HUF 393.517458
IDR 16941.25656
ILS 4.226056
IMP 0.850995
INR 93.284241
IQD 1461.522939
IRR 47035.770303
ISK 152.262556
JEP 0.850995
JMD 175.286771
JOD 0.791709
JPY 160.715589
KES 143.922717
KGS 94.13132
KHR 4531.14103
KMF 493.181764
KPW 1005.693717
KRW 1488.975611
KWD 0.340897
KYD 0.929724
KZT 534.908597
LAK 24636.329683
LBP 99909.860054
LKR 340.395471
LRD 223.1377
LSL 19.586187
LTL 3.299505
LVL 0.675928
LYD 5.297996
MAD 10.818149
MDL 19.468309
MGA 5046.04342
MKD 61.603322
MMK 3629.395577
MNT 3797.054841
MOP 8.955702
MRU 44.337595
MUR 51.268486
MVR 17.164273
MWK 1934.433289
MXN 21.694843
MYR 4.698871
MZN 71.348848
NAD 19.586187
NGN 1831.984424
NIO 41.062216
NOK 11.714943
NPR 149.198716
NZD 1.791197
OMR 0.429669
PAB 1.115688
PEN 4.181807
PGK 4.367172
PHP 62.188829
PKR 309.994034
PLN 4.274593
PYG 8704.349913
QAR 4.067529
RON 4.972492
RSD 117.203662
RUB 103.07316
RWF 1504.014883
SAR 4.193134
SBD 9.282489
SCR 14.578236
SDG 672.143165
SEK 11.365691
SGD 1.442952
SHP 0.850995
SLE 25.530448
SLL 23432.113894
SOS 637.579134
SRD 33.752262
STD 23128.713955
SVC 9.762149
SYP 2807.596846
SZL 19.593286
THB 36.793929
TJS 11.859752
TMT 3.911034
TND 3.380559
TOP 2.617156
TRY 38.124201
TTD 7.588561
TWD 35.736832
TZS 3045.822602
UAH 46.114158
UGX 4133.216465
USD 1.117438
UYU 46.101261
UZS 14197.308611
VEF 4047978.463464
VES 41.096875
VND 27494.566096
VUV 132.664504
WST 3.125992
XAF 655.832674
XAG 0.035881
XAU 0.000426
XCD 3.019933
XDR 0.826843
XOF 655.832674
XPF 119.331742
YER 279.722751
ZAR 19.477909
ZMK 10058.288435
ZMW 29.537401
ZWL 359.814634
  • JRI

    -0.0800

    13.32

    -0.6%

  • CMSD

    0.0100

    25.02

    +0.04%

  • BCC

    -7.1900

    137.5

    -5.23%

  • GSK

    -0.8200

    40.8

    -2.01%

  • SCS

    -0.3900

    12.92

    -3.02%

  • CMSC

    0.0300

    25.15

    +0.12%

  • NGG

    0.7200

    69.55

    +1.04%

  • BTI

    -0.1300

    37.44

    -0.35%

  • RELX

    -0.1400

    47.99

    -0.29%

  • RBGPF

    58.8300

    58.83

    +100%

  • BCE

    -0.1500

    35.04

    -0.43%

  • RIO

    -1.6100

    63.57

    -2.53%

  • AZN

    -0.5200

    78.38

    -0.66%

  • RYCEF

    0.0200

    6.97

    +0.29%

  • BP

    -0.1200

    32.64

    -0.37%

  • VOD

    -0.0500

    10.01

    -0.5%

Discarded plastic blights Honduran mangrove island
Discarded plastic blights Honduran mangrove island / Photo: Orlando SIERRA - AFP

Discarded plastic blights Honduran mangrove island

A heron chick flutters clumsily after hatching in a nest on a mangrove island littered with plastic waste in the Gulf of Fonseca, along the Pacific Coast of Central America.

Text size:

The air fills with shrieks of other seabirds also nesting on Los Pajaros Island, in the San Lorenzo Wildlife Reserve, set amid turquoise waters shared by Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua.

Thousands of herons, gulls, pelicans, frigate birds, roseate spoonbills and other seabirds dwell in the tangle of branches on this 6.2 acre (2.5 hectare) island.

But they share it these days with unwanted mounds of plastic bottles, tangles of fish netting and other discarded trash washed up on its shores.

Residents in inland cities often throw their plastic waste into rivers that empty into the Gulf of Fonseca, despoiling the once-pristine habitat.

A dozen or so islands and keys dot the gulf, a 1,200 square mile (3,100 square kilometer) area that is fed by five major rivers from the three neighboring countries. Border disputes over rights to the gulf and its islands once roiled the countries but those disputes have quieted down.

- Cleanup time arrives -

Instead, efforts to clean up the gulf's islands and keys are now underway.

An activist group, the Committee for the Defense and Development of the Flora and Fauna of the Gulf of Fonseca, has joined forces with the Forest Conservation Institute of Honduras (ICF) and municipalities along the coast to conduct cleanups.

One recent day, a mission takes some 20 volunteers and government workers to Los Pajaros Island, where they plunge into the thickets of mangroves, filling sacks with endless plastic waste and discarded bottles.

"These solid wastes... take years to decompose," Helen Castillo of ICF tells AFP.

The gulf hosts "five of the seven species of mangrove that exist worldwide, so that is a target of our conservation," environmentalist Carlos Zorto of the activist group tells AFP.

The Gulf of Fonseca provides key nesting sites for migrating birds as well as habitat for crabs, mollusks, iguanas and fish, such as snook and snapper.

- 'The ones hit hardest' -

Much of the garbage comes from cities and towns in central and southern Honduras, carried down river to the gulf, Castillo explains.

"We have seen sea turtles with nostrils blocked by plastic forks and plastic spoons, which can cause their death," she says.

The head of the cleanup effort for the activist group, Adan Rivas, says participants try to get those living along the coastline to help.

"We are the ones hit hardest" by environmental degradation, Rivas told AFP. "In the case of Honduras, we are seeing droughts, flooding... and the disappearance of some species."

T.Gerber--NZN