Brazilian coastal towns conduct dune restoration, beach waste removal and underwater clean‑up

From June 10 to 15, the municipality of Torres (RS) organized four public environmental actions: dune restoration on Praia da Cal by removing the invasive plant chorão‑da‑praia and planting native dune marigold, a community‑focused day in Parque Estadual da Guarita, a litter‑cleanup of Lagoa do Violão, and the planting of native seedlings along the Rio Mampituba banks to protect a permanent preservation area.

In Vera Cruz, the Projeto Mares clean‑up involved about 80 volunteers who collected roughly 155 kg of beach and marine debris, including glass bottles, PET, plastic fragments and other waste. The effort was carried out with the support of Petrobras’ socio‑environmental program and local authorities, highlighting the challenges of recycling mixed waste and promoting environmental education.

On June 13, AquaRio partnered with the Dolphin Diving School to conduct an underwater waste removal operation in the Itaipu Marine Extractive Reserve (Niterói, RJ) as part of the First Ocean Week. Divers, equipped by the aquarium, extracted submerged debris from the seabed and conducted on‑site sorting, aiming to protect the reserve’s biodiversity and support local artisanal fishing communities.