environment

Plastic bottles found on Playa La Barqueta

Boris Gómez/SPECIAL FOR LA PRENSA

contaminated:Authorities are trying to determine the source of thouands of plastic bottles found on a Chiriquí beach.1048648

Beachgoers at Chiriquí's Playa La Barqueta had to share the area with some unwanted guests as thousands of plastic bottles found their way to shore.

The bottles were strewn over a two-kilometer stretch of the beach, which is part of an area protected by the Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente (Anam).

Anam officials said they were concerned about the impact that the bottles would have on sea turtles that use the beach for nesting. Authorities do not have any idea where the bottles came from.

According to Autoridad de los Recursos Acuáticos de Panamá (Arap) Regional Director José Ricardo Martínez, one theory is that the bottles came from a boat headed toward a recycling plant, and that they were accidentally dropped overboard and then carried to the beach by ocean currents.

“There are all kinds of bottles. There are soda, juice and water bottles, as well as ones that held oil and cleansers,” Martínez said, adding that many had labels with Chinese characters on them.

Pedro Villarreal, of the Autoridad Marítima de Panamá (AMP), said that there are no bottles being loaded on to any ships at any docks checked by the government. So it is unlikely that the bottles, if they came from a ship, were being transported locally.

Harmodio Santamaría, Anam's regional director in Chiriquí, said that another possibility is that heavy rains may have flooded a facility where the bottles were being stored, flushing them downstream to the beach.

The bottle boom was reported by Corporación Las Olas, which is developing a multi-million tourism project near the beach.

Plastic bottles are especially dangerous to marine animals such as turtles because, when eaten, they can block the digestive track, causing starvation. Plastic is one of the most common pollutants of the world's oceans.