A year before Olympics, protesters decry filthy Rio bay

Yahoo News ^ | 6/7/15 | AFP

[NormsRevenge]

Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - Dozens of demonstrators gathered at Rio de Janeiro's heavily polluted Guanabara Bay, demanding that officials clean it up before it is used as a 2016 Olympic sailing venue.

Amid whistles of disapproval and shouts of "shame!" demonstrators held a beachside protest, their boats symbolically kept on the shore as they waved their oars in the air.

They launched their protest at noon to coincide with low tide, when the dirtiness of the water is most evident.

"Brazilian authorities promised a series of improvements to the bay but just a little more than a year ahead of the Olympic Games have done virtually nothing," said Mario Moscatelli, a university professor and biologist, who called the protest.

Athletes training for next summer's Olympic Games have complained about the condition of the water, where animal carcasses, sewage and tons of dead fish have been found floating.

[Nowhere Man]

I gotta go with the protesters on this one, it is true. My cousin was aboard the USS Constellation, circa 1989/90, when she made a port call in Rio. When they weighed anchor, she remembers the crew hosing all the “icky stuff” from the anchor.

[Ax]

“The breakfast garbage you throw into the Bay,
They drink for lunch in San Jose.” Tom Lehrer