"VENTANILLA, Peru — It’s peak fishing season along Peru’s coastline, and on a day like this one, Robert Roberto Merino Leon would have set out before dawn to the waters that sustained his family for the last two decades.

With a basket strapped to his back and the sun bearing down, the 48-year-old father of two would have trekked carefully along the edge of the 600-foot oceanside cliff here. He would have studied the waves as he approached the rocky shore, determining exactly where and when to cast his line.

But today he carried nothing. As he looked over the cliff edge, he lamented again the faint brown stain, the foam drifting up to shore as it poisoned Merino’s livelihood."

Samantha Schmidt reports for the Washington Post March 4, 2022. [2]