In the Tupi Indigenous language, the Guanabara Bay is the “bosom of the sea”. Long before the arrival of Europeans in 1502, countless generations relied on its calm natural harbour and dense mangroves for their sustenance. Portuguese explorers marvelled at perfumed flowers and more fish than they’d ever seen back home: a veritable Garden of Eden. Baptized as the River of January, the colony soon became the gateway to a nascent Brazil as well as its mirror. But what once reflected a breathtaking natural beauty is now one of the most heavily polluted coastal regions in the world.
The Guanabara has witnessed many changes, from capital of a continental empire to nexus of the transatlantic slave trade and UNESCO World Heritage site. Nearly a fifth of all slaves taken from Africa arrived on its shores. With the end of slavery and the dawn of industrialization came decades of urbanization, and millions migrated to the city from the impoverished interior looking for opportunity. The Herculean efforts of these working-class masses were met with little if any corresponding investment from city officials, especially in the area of sanitation. As a result, the world famous statue of Christ faces a 412 square kilometre toxic dump.
Greater Rio de Janeiro, with a population of over thirteen million people, treats barely half of all its waste water and around eighteen thousand litres of raw sewage are released into the bay each second. Everything from trash to heavy metals, furniture and dead bodies (victims of the city’s infamous gang violence) can be found in the bay’s murky waters. Beautifully-written environmental laws are practically unenforced in a state that is a byword for corruption and impunity. Poor in governance but rich in oil, the country's second-busiest port has seen more than two million litres of crude oil spilt since 2000 alone, complementing dangerously high levels of mercury and ammonia. After decades of failed attempts to clean up the bay, the local government now puts its faith in the privatization of Rio’s state sanitation corporation, CEDAE. Only time will tell what the consequences will be.
But even through all of this the bay is still very much alive, a testament to nature’s resilience and capacity for renewal. Studies indicate that if all pollution were to cease tomorrow, after no less than five years the Guanabara will have cleaned itself through its natural water recycling process. In a country like Brazil with its abysmal inequalities, worrying about pollution can seem like a luxury. But as the story of the Guanabara demonstrates, it is often the marginalized and working classes who have the most to lose from environmental injustice and the most to gain from its reversal. For the bay and its defenders this justice remains elusive in a long, costly and often lonely struggle. But when asked about the future there comes the common refrain: “hope is the last to die”.
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The colony of artesanal fishermen Z-11 sits on the edge of the Guanabara Bay facing Governor's island and Rio de Janeiro's international airport. It is currently the most polluted part of the bay.
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David (l) and Josué (r), two artesanal fishermen from Z-11 head out at dawn to try their luck. Artensanal fishermen use nets and ancient methods to fish in the once-bountiful bay, but their livelhoods have been under increasing strain for decades.
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The oil vessels are dotted all over the bay. The fish tend to hide under them, but even then they're lucky to get a good catch. Artesanal fishermen use time-tested methods but it's still back-breaking work hauling empty nets.
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The Guanabara bay has been polluted for decades but increasingly disorganized developement means that only a fraction of the city's waste water is treated. It's estimated that around fifteen thousand litres of raw sewage are dumped into the bay every second.
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Augusto has plans to move back out to Paquetá island to fish for shrimp, in a secret location he believes will be rich.
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Luis and listens close to the television for a report on a man who lives nearby and was alleged to have murdered his sister and thrown her body in the Guanabara bay. As well as being polluted by sewage and industry the bay is also a deposit for the remains of victims of the violence that plagues Rio and Brazil.
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Once sorted and weighed, the fish are taken to markets on an air-conditioned truck. Most established vendors refuse to buy fish from the bay and those that do pay little and irregularly.
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Santel attempts to move a yacht that is due to be repaired in the colony. Z-11 has increasingly had to rely on rent payed by boat owners wishing to moor their pleasure craft at the colony in order to sustain itself.
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The bridge to Niteroí, on the opposite side of the bay from the city of Rio.
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Diogo speaks on the phone to his wife and young son while taking a rest from night fishing. Working nights is hard on the body, mind and on the family, as the men need the day to rest and recover for the next shift.
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Fishermen haul the nets off of the boat to be ready for repairs and the next night of fishing.
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While the nets are being unloaded the hold has to be emptied of ice and fish and the decks washed.
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Dawn breaks and the fishermen return home, but the work isn't over yet.
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A bio-technician takes a sample of polluted water thought to be leeched from a nearby clandestine trash dump in an area controlled by organized crime. The slurry from the deactivated Jardim Gramacho, once Latin America's largest landfill on the banks of the Guanabara Bay has been seeping into the bay and is thought to be one of the main reasons the crab population has disappeared.
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A fisherman shows the scars on his legs thought to be a result of repeated exposure to toxic water in the Guanabara Bay and its tributaries in the municipality of Duque de Caxias. The suburb north of Rio de Janeiro was home to the 200 oil spill, a huge petrochemical refinery and dozens of heavy industries that have been dumping toxic chemicals into the bay and its rivers.
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Gilciney Gomes, 64, a fisherman of the Guanabara for over forty years, bails out toxic water from his small fishing boat near the mouth of the river Sarapuí in the northwestern region of the bay, the most polluted. President of the Fishing Colony of Duque de Caxias, a suburban municipality north of Rio proper, his fellow fishermen have suffered the brunt of pollution and government inaction at ground zero of the 2000 oil spill, next to one of Brazil's largest petrochemical refineries and in an area dominated by militia and traffickers. Gomes now collects recyclables found in the mangrove to sell as fishing and crabbing are no longer sustainable.
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The REDUC petrochemical refinery is under investigation for dumping chemical waste into the Guanabara. In 2000 it was site of a massive oil spill in the bay from one of its transport pipes that spilt millions of litres of crude oil that the bay has still yet to recover from. To date, many fishermen have not received indemnity ordered by the state.
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Rutel, 10, attempts a back flip into the Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro.
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Ataíde plays his cavaquinho.
The colony of artesanal fishermen Z-11 sits on the edge of the Guanabara Bay facing Governor's island and Rio de Janeiro's international airport. It is currently the most polluted part of the bay.
David (l) and Josué (r), two artesanal fishermen from Z-11 head out at dawn to try their luck. Artensanal fishermen use nets and ancient methods to fish in the once-bountiful bay, but their livelhoods have been under increasing strain for decades.
The oil vessels are dotted all over the bay. The fish tend to hide under them, but even then they're lucky to get a good catch. Artesanal fishermen use time-tested methods but it's still back-breaking work hauling empty nets.
The Guanabara bay has been polluted for decades but increasingly disorganized developement means that only a fraction of the city's waste water is treated. It's estimated that around fifteen thousand litres of raw sewage are dumped into the bay every second.
Augusto has plans to move back out to Paquetá island to fish for shrimp, in a secret location he believes will be rich.
Luis and listens close to the television for a report on a man who lives nearby and was alleged to have murdered his sister and thrown her body in the Guanabara bay. As well as being polluted by sewage and industry the bay is also a deposit for the remains of victims of the violence that plagues Rio and Brazil.
Once sorted and weighed, the fish are taken to markets on an air-conditioned truck. Most established vendors refuse to buy fish from the bay and those that do pay little and irregularly.
Santel attempts to move a yacht that is due to be repaired in the colony. Z-11 has increasingly had to rely on rent payed by boat owners wishing to moor their pleasure craft at the colony in order to sustain itself.
The bridge to Niteroí, on the opposite side of the bay from the city of Rio.
Diogo speaks on the phone to his wife and young son while taking a rest from night fishing. Working nights is hard on the body, mind and on the family, as the men need the day to rest and recover for the next shift.
Fishermen haul the nets off of the boat to be ready for repairs and the next night of fishing.
While the nets are being unloaded the hold has to be emptied of ice and fish and the decks washed.
Dawn breaks and the fishermen return home, but the work isn't over yet.
A bio-technician takes a sample of polluted water thought to be leeched from a nearby clandestine trash dump in an area controlled by organized crime. The slurry from the deactivated Jardim Gramacho, once Latin America's largest landfill on the banks of the Guanabara Bay has been seeping into the bay and is thought to be one of the main reasons the crab population has disappeared.
A fisherman shows the scars on his legs thought to be a result of repeated exposure to toxic water in the Guanabara Bay and its tributaries in the municipality of Duque de Caxias. The suburb north of Rio de Janeiro was home to the 200 oil spill, a huge petrochemical refinery and dozens of heavy industries that have been dumping toxic chemicals into the bay and its rivers.
Gilciney Gomes, 64, a fisherman of the Guanabara for over forty years, bails out toxic water from his small fishing boat near the mouth of the river Sarapuí in the northwestern region of the bay, the most polluted. President of the Fishing Colony of Duque de Caxias, a suburban municipality north of Rio proper, his fellow fishermen have suffered the brunt of pollution and government inaction at ground zero of the 2000 oil spill, next to one of Brazil's largest petrochemical refineries and in an area dominated by militia and traffickers. Gomes now collects recyclables found in the mangrove to sell as fishing and crabbing are no longer sustainable.
The REDUC petrochemical refinery is under investigation for dumping chemical waste into the Guanabara. In 2000 it was site of a massive oil spill in the bay from one of its transport pipes that spilt millions of litres of crude oil that the bay has still yet to recover from. To date, many fishermen have not received indemnity ordered by the state.
Rutel, 10, attempts a back flip into the Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro.
Ataíde plays his cavaquinho.
Andrew Christian Johnson
Andrew Christian Johnson Canadian documentary photographer videographer based in Brazil and Toronto, Canada