Yesterday was blog action day, and since my blog was down I didn’t really get a chance to post. I thought I’d quickly drop an image and note to say that every year with the summer rains Puerta Vallarta’s beaches are inundated with trash runoff from the past nine rain-less months. Trash is deposited on street surfaces and green areas, gathers for nine months and then with torrential rains, is washed into the ocean. The trash ends up on the beaches, as does all of the dead sea-life that comes into contact with the trash including fish, eels and giant sea turtles. The turtles are the most worrisome as they are endangered. Its absolutely heartbreaking to come across a dead or dying sea turtle, some as large as three feet across. Although the mexican government swears up and down it is trying to implement programs to save the turtles, I have yet to see any attempts, beyond an occasional sign at the beach, to educate people about proper disposal of trash.
Mexico is in serious need of trash and recycling programs as well as national level long-running public service announcements. TV, radio, you name it.
In these pictures, you’ll notice the trash swirling in the water and at the shoreline. This is the Pitillal river, in “Fluvial” Vallarta. This picture was taken the day after a large rain storm. I could visibly see trash floating down the river in large swaths, exiting and pooling in the rivermouth and along the shore. There was a particularly large swell that day and surfers where surfing the large waves (as they break off of sandbars created by silt deposited at the rivermouth). Surfing directly through large piles of trash and brown silted runoff water.
