This footage shows the shoreline of a Mexican paradise beach covered in black petroleum after five such beauty spots were closed after a mystery oil spill.
The spill has affected the beaches in the town of Paraiso which faces the Caribbean Sea in the state of Tabasco in the Gulf of Mexico.
Video Credit: CEN/@SahiraAM
According to local media between six and eight kilometres of the shoreline of Paraiso have been affected and neither local authorities nor the state-owned oil company Pemex are unable to explain how the oil reached the beaches.
The Paraiso City Council announced on social media that the Municipal Civil Protection Unit (UMPC) closed five beaches as a “health measure to protect tourists”.
According to the Governor of the State of Tabasco Adan Augusto Lopez Hernandez, the Civil Protection Office are working to guarantee the safety of swimmers in the area and they have already contacted Pemex.
Lopez Hernandez told local media: “There is an oil spill, we still don’t know where it came from, but the beaches were closed as a preventive measure. We are already in contact with Pemex”
The governor said that it is too early to asses the damage in the municipality where an estimated 2,500 people work in the fishing industry.
Pemex told local reporters that oil spills are normal in this season in which cold fronts arrive at the Gulf of Mexico but said they have not found any spills in their facilities.
The company said in a public statement: “There are no reports of accidents in our systems or operational information that mentions about this kind of event.”
The oil enterprise and local authorities will reportedly take on the cleaning of the swimming areas damaged by the spilling.
The beaches closed in Paraiso are Club de Playas Varadero, Paraiso-Mar, Santa Fe, Balneario Municipal “Playa Sol”, and an area in the La Union Primera Seccion.
Twitter user ‘SahiraAM’ shared a video of the spill on the social media and wrote: “It begins to get light with oil on the beaches of Paraiso, Tabasco why aren’t you talking about it?”
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Story By: Jonathan Macias, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
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