During 2024, the Naval Institution has extracted about 40 tons of waste from this National Natural Park.
The cargo was transported on board the ARC Golfo de Tribugá to the municipality of Guapi for final disposition.
The ship ARC Golfo de Tribugá of the Colombian Navy sailed from the main port of the Colombian Pacific, Buenaventura, in Valle del Cauca, with more than 50 Sailors and navy personnel to the Island of Gorgona, to carry out for four days the operation Navigating in the Biodiversity of Gorgona Island, with which in addition to ratifying the institutional activities in the territory and the operations to protect the environment in this area, its mission was the underwater cleaning of coral, the cleaning of its beaches and the extraction of approximately 18 tons of solid waste.
The ship set sail at about 5:30 p.m. and after 14 hours of navigation anchored one nautical mile of the beach. Isla Gorgona received them with a heavy rain and thick fog, but it was no impediment for the Colombian Navy crew, who disembarked on a boat to the island, where the Navy and Coast Guard personnel who provide security there permanently, as well as National Natural Parks personnel, were waiting for them.
During the first day, the introduction activity of the different works to be presented was carried out. The staff of the Diving and Rescue Department of the Naval Base ARC Málaga met the biologists of the Gorgona National Natural Park, to analyze and establish the procedures to be taken into account during the coral cleaning and the detachment of different rudimentary and industrial fishing gear, which hit the protection of the specimens, in the sector called Agujeros.
At about noon, the ARC Golfo de Tribugá ship landed at Gorgona Island, to disembark 25 Professional navy men, who received instruction by the work team of the Environment Office of the Naval Base ARC Malaga, on the protocols to be taken into account for the shipment of garbage that would be extracted from Gorgona Island. The navy units worked for approximately four hours, moving all kinds of waste of the collection area on Gorgona Island to the ship, where they embarked the 18 tons of garbage that had been in this place for four years.
It should be noted that the Colombian Navy last March carried out a garbage extraction activity in which 21 tons of solid waste and recyclable material were taken on board the ARC ship Bahía Solano to the municipality of Guapi - Cauca.
For the second day of work, of the municipality of Guapi and after coordination with the Port Authority, the mayor's office and the foundation Yo quiero a mi Guapi limpio, two boats with 25 people arrived in the Island of Gorgona, to contribute to the cleaning activity that was being carried out in Palmera beach, located 20 minutes from Poblado beach, where the main settlement is. For three hours, about 50 people including military personnel of the Colombian Navy and the General Maritime Directorate, as well as officials of National Natural Parks and the foundation, collected 30 sacks of garbage, which were taken on a boat and later, embarked on the ship ARC Golfo de Tribugá.
At the same time, in the Agujeros sector, different dives were conducted by 45 and 50 feet deep by the divers of the Colombian Navy and officials of National Natural Parks, to carry out the underwater cleaning activity of removal of fishing elements, industrial and rudimentary, collecting five different fishing nets; this was an activity which stops the life from being hit.
On the last day of work, after carrying out other underwater dives and when the tide was high, the ARC ship Golfo de Tribugá left and set course for the municipality of Guapi, arriving at the facilities of the Navy Infantry River Battalion No.42, where military personnel landed the 18 tons of waste. The next day, the extraction began by the company EMGUAPI S.A.S for its final disposition.
Source: Press – Navy of Colombia
