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Peru’s ‘worst ecological disaster’ slams small-scale fishing

FILE - Fisherman Walter de la Cruz walks away empty-handed, while workers continue in an oil clean-up campaign on Lluvia Beach in the Ventanilla district of Callao, Peru, Feb. 28, 2022, following the Repsol oil spill caused by a tsunami from the eruption of an underwater volcano near Tonga. De la Cruz cast a hook into the waters off Peru’s coast several times, with no luck. One attempt yielded a piece of plastic stained with oil. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia, File) FILE - A fisherman holds a fish he caught in waters contaminated with oil from a spill caused by the waves from an eruption of an undersea volcano in the South Pacific nation of Tonga, in Ancon, Peru, Jan. 20, 2022. Peru has characterized the Jan. 15 spill of 11,900 barrels in front of a Repsol refinery as its “worst ecological disaster.” (AP Photo/Martin Mejia, File) FILE - Fishermen eat lunch from a common pot, next to a statue of their patron Saint Peter, in the Ventanilla district of Callao, Peru, Feb. 28, 2022, weeks following the Repsol oil spill caused by a tsunami from the eruption of an underwater volcano near Tonga. Peru does not have exact data on the number of fishermen affected by the Jan. 15 oil spill, or of the people on the docks and ports who depend on the fishing industry, including restaurants, food vendors, and those who rent sun umbrellas or boats. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia, File) FILE - Fishermen look at a beach polluted by an oil spill caused by a tsunami from the eruption of an underwater volcano near Tonga, in the Ventanilla district of Callao, Peru, Feb. 24, 2022. Artisanal fishermen are among the most economically vulnerable in Peru, harvesting small amounts of fish very close to the coast, sometimes from small boats and sometimes from the shore, said Juan Carlos Sueiro, an expert on the economics of fishing with the international conservation group Oceana. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia, File) FILE - Fisherman Walter de la Cruz prepares his fishing hooks before casting a line into the waters of La Lluvia Beach in the Ventanilla district of Callao, Peru, Feb. 28, 2022. Artisanal fishermen are among the most economically vulnerable in Peru, harvesting small amounts of fish very close to the coast, sometimes from small boats and sometimes from the shore, said Juan Carlos Sueiro, an expert on the economics of fishing with the international conservation group Oceana. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia, File) FILE - Fisherman Walter de la Cruz casts his fishing line from the shore of La Lluvia Beach in the Ventanilla district of Callao, Peru, Feb. 28, 2022, weeks following the Repsol oil spill caused by a tsunami from the eruption of an underwater volcano near Tonga. De la Cruz said he knew immediately that the oil spreading over the waters off Peru's coast would halt for the first time the activity carried out for centuries. "I saw the fruits of my livelihood destroyed," he said. "It's like if you have a store and someone comes and sets it on fire." (AP Photo/Martin Mejia, File) FILE - Fisherman Kiefer Taboada shows a handful of mollusks coated with oil waste from an oil spill caused by the waves from an eruption of an undersea volcano in the South Pacific nation of Tonga, at Culebras Beach in the Ventanilla district of Callao, Peru, Feb. 24, 2022. Fishermen in the Peruvian capital say they are struggling to maintain the traditional industry and are seeing their livelihoods in jeopardy. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia, File) FILE - Fisherman Kiefer Taboada shows a handful of mollusks coated with oil waste at Culebras Beach in the Ventanilla district of Callao, Peru, Feb. 24, 2022. A report by United Nations experts estimates the Jan. 15 Repsol oil spill involved about 2,100 tons of crude, well above the 700 tons the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation Limited considers the threshold for a large spill. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia, File) FILE - Workers remove oil waste from Cavero Beach in the Ventanilla district of Callao, Peru, Jan. 21, 2022, following the Repsol oil spill caused by a tsunami from the eruption of an underwater volcano near Tonga. Peru has characterized the Jan. 15 spill as its "worst ecological disaster." (AP Photo/Martin Mejia, File) FILE - Fisherman Walter de la Cruz sits on the shore of the oil-stained Cavero Beach, unable to fish after a spill in the Ventanilla district of Callao, Peru, Jan. 21, 2022. De la Cruz, 60, is one of more than 2,500 fishermen whose livelihoods have been cast into doubt as a result of a large crude-oil spill by the Spanish-owned Repsol oil refinery on Jan. 15. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia, File)