Gilciney Gomes, 61, has been fishing in Guanabara Bay for 40 years. Pollution practically made fish such as sole, piraúna, swordfish and others of greater value disappear from their nets. He was left mainly with corvino and mullet, which did not guarantee his livelihood.
Ten years ago, he started to fish for crab, which still survives in the mangroves of polluted rivers in Duque de Caxias. During closed seasons, in which the practice is prohibited to ensure the reproduction of animals, Gilciney collects garbage from the river for resale at recycling centers. But even that pollution gets in the way.
“Some buy [o material reciclável], but others don’t, because they say it’s too dirty material. They ask: ‘Is it PET from the Walloon?’. The Sarapuí River is now a ditch. We need to wash it well to sell it a little more expensive. But you can’t wash 30, 40 kg of plastic properly. We end up selling cheaper to some who accept to buy [sujo]”, says Gilciney.
Fishermen are the weakest link in an economic loss calculated in billions of reais for the state caused by the pollution of Guanabara Bay.
A study by economist Riley Rodrigues, special advisor to the state Civil House, points to the potential of R$ 25.4 billion for the state in 30 years.
Rodrigues points out that between 2002 and 2013 there was a 68% reduction in the volume fished in the bay. According to Fiperj (Fundação Instituto de Pesca do Rio de Janeiro), 1,380 production units —boats and fishermen on land — unloaded fish from the bay between 2017 and 2020.
“15 years ago, I brought 14, 15 trays of fish. Today I only bring 3. It has decreased a lot. If I go fishing, I only get R$ 15, R$ 20 of fish. $80. We were forced, but it’s the means of survival,” Gilciney said.
According to Alexandre Anderson, president of Ahomar (Men of the Sea Association), many fishermen abandoned the practice to seek other livelihoods. He estimates the total number of fishermen working in the bay at at least 3,000.
“The impact runs away from the beach. It’s in the closed shops due to lack of tourists. Families who are forced to leave and make a forced, involuntary migration. We have many abandoned houses because the fishermen had to leave to seek their livelihood. They went to the capital to work as a bricklayer, construction assistant and left the region”, said he, who works in Magé.
In addition to fishing, the surveys calculate the loss based on expenses with hospitalizations caused by diseases related to failures in basic sanitation, such as gastrointestinal infections, and their impact on worker income and productivity and on education. The estimates also consider the possible real estate appreciation in the surroundings of Guanabara Bay with its environmental improvement.
There are, however, symbolic expenses not accounted for in the surveys, such as the Ramos swimming pool, a leisure area built in 2001 to replace the neighborhood’s polluted beach, which was used for bathing in the first decades of the last century.
The City Hall of Rio de Janeiro spends R$ 4.8 million annually on a structure that captures and treats water from the most polluted area of the bay and supplies the swimming pool.
The state government built another swimming pool in 2004, in São Gonçalo. It has been abandoned for five years due to maintenance costs.
The economic potential of the bay is one of the arguments of the state government to demand an emergency investment of R$ 2.7 billion in the concession of basic sanitation in order to stop the discharge of sewage into the waters.
“Rio’s economy passes through Guanabara Bay. It surrounds several municipalities, has a relevant tourist importance, and also in the oil and gas sector. It is our main source of wealth”, says the Secretary of the Civil House, Nicola Miccione.
The image of the bay associated with sewage disposal also affects less affected regions of the water surface, affecting the tourism industry. Businessman José Lavrador, owner of Paquetur, on the island of Paquetá, says that “pollution affects people’s imagination a lot.”
Paquetá is at the end of the central channel of the bay, where the exchange of water with the sea is more constant. The north of the island, in turn, is close to the APA (environmental protection area) Guapimirim, whose rivers have better conditions than those in the western part of the water mirror.
“There may even be parts of the bay that are not so polluted. But, in people’s imagination, it is associated with pollution. This is a very big damage and difficult to quantify”, he says.
Lavrador says that his company seeks to explore more of the historical and cultural aspect of the island, a frequent lodging place for D. João 6º. Still, pollution affects visitation.
“We always work with this imaginary that there is a polluted bay around paradise. This is very painful. It diminishes the dimension of the joy of being in Paquetá”, says Lavrador.
“We try to work with hotels to make this a point on the tourist itinerary for receptive people in Rio. We have a lot of difficulty, because the imagery of pollution reigns. In their language, it’s a burnt product.”
The bay is also a scenario explored by Saveiros Tours, one of the first to carry out tours in the region. The company’s director, Eduardo Adrizzo, says that visitors complain even when the diving stop is made in places with good bathing conditions.
“When I say they have to stop in Jurujuba or Urca, people complain. They have to explain that [a qualidade da água] depends on the tide. In front of such a big bay, with so many coves, there are very few that we can stop to dive”, he says.
Adrizzo regrets not being able to anchor in Botafogo cove in front of Sugarloaf Mountain, one of the city’s main postcards.
“Botafogo cove I don’t even go in by boat, because it’s a sewer,” he said. The beach was unsuitable for swimming on 99.8% of the days between 2015 and 2019.
Under the water mirror there are also wasted potentials. Biologist Ricardo Abreu, from the Mar Urbano Institute, says that agencies could explore diving to see the seven species of rays that exist in the bay.
“Stingrays are icons of world underwater tourism. In Indonesia, you spend US$400 to dive with them. There they are protected by law. A manta ray in Indonesia can generate more than US$1 million during its lifetime with tourism underwater,” he says.
Pollution and the image that the bay carries make the species a less profitable destination.
“We have this wealth here and we sell these rays at the fair. It’s the cheapest fish meat there is. Most of the time they are caught accidentally. sometimes they catch rays too”, says the biologist, producer and director of the film “Baía Urbana”.
In partnership with O Boticário, Firjan (Federation of Industries of Rio de Janeiro) mapped 69 sustainable economic activities in the bay.
The federation’s Sustainability manager, Jorge Peron, believes that depollution can promote some of them, such as tourism, agriculture and sustainable management. The process can also help the real estate sector, with the opening of new residential and tourism centers on the water’s edge.
“The participation of businesses considered sustainable in the agriculture, sustainable fishing and mariculture sectors is still small. If the bathing context changes, it begins to create a more favorable environment both for the development of species that already exist and for attracting other species”, he says. .
collaborated NICOLA PAMPLONA
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