The fiddler crab has long been adored for helping nature “lighten up” on plastic waste. But the reality is a bit different….
In the north of Colombia is the town of Turbo. It was originally inhabited by fishermen, but with the development of industry and increasing tourism around the nearby Los Katios National Park, the place turned into a dirty and poor part of the country. And the mangrove forests that surround Turbo, turn into a huge plastic dump. Even so big that it is among the biggest in the world. How is that?
Garbage flowing into the river
The story of the mangrove forests around the town of Turbo began in the eighties of the last century, when large-scale logging started and huge banana plantations were established on the vacant land. Working in the orchard and picking fruit attracted a lot of socially weak inhabitants from the countryside… Most of them anchored in the slums of Turba, such as Pescadores or Las Gaviotas. Living in poor conditions, insufficient hygiene, non-existent landfill and sewerage forced the locals to use the Atrato river as a universal cleaning and trash bin…
Half the trees are gone…
Over the decades, the watercourse has turned into a huge cesspool of dirt and plastic waste that flows through the mangrove forest. Over the years, the green place has literally become nature’s graveyard. Roughly 50% of the trees were “suffocated” by plastic waste, the amount of which is several thousand tons in a single year! “Plastic bags, bottles, bags, packaging destroys the entire ecosystem, including turtles, crocodiles, fish, crabs and birds that eat the garbage or get entangled in it and die,” says one local resident.
Bananas, wood and gold
For environmentalists, the mangrove forests around Turbo are a huge disaster that is not easily solved. All the more so because, in addition to polluting waste, there is also illegal gold mining, where mercury is used as a liquid that “cleans” the gold from the rest of the rocks. “Mercury combined with plastic creates a huge ecological disaster that destroys the land, but everything alive in the water,” says American ecologist Tom Doyle, adding that the situation is officially unsolvable.
Eating plastic – crab!
The local fiddler crab, which is one of the hardy inhabitants of the watercourse and whose peculiarity is that it eats and crushes plastic from the Atrato River, was a certain hope for the sides of plastic waste. “This crab lives in the mud, digs burrows up to 50 centimeters deep, and plastic is part of its normal diet,” says ecologist Tom Doyle, adding that the crab has a special “grinder” in its gut that, in conjunction with bacteria, can crush plastic into nanoparticles.
Almost like poison
At first glance, it looks like a great thing, but appearances are deceiving. According to the expert, the fiddler crab does process larger pieces of plastic, but it also excludes microplastics, which are perhaps even more dangerous for nature. How is that? “Simply— microplastics act as such “sponges” that pack toxic substances, heavy metals, pesticides and residues of plastic additives… These mixtures remain in the mud and are food for fish, which are then consumed by humans. As a result, these nanoparticles are a big health risk for the local population, because they cause inflammation, hormonal disorders or the risk of cancer,” adds the expert.
