In mid-November, a drifting ship struck the 13-kilometre bridge between the Brazilian cities of Rio de Janeiro and Niterói.
The impact forced traffic to stop between the two cities for hours and triggered alerts about a problem that has been latent for years: the cemetery where more than 300 abandoned ships float, causing environmental damage and navigation risks.
Guanabara Bay, one of the iconic points of tourism that comes to Rio de Janeiro, is home to hundreds of boats with no apparent owner, which slowly deteriorate, leaking toxic substances into the water.
The ship that crashed, for example, contained 50,000 liters of fuel and had been aground for six years.
The Brazilian authorities have no plans to remove the vessels and for the most part, there is no chance of finding the owners, since many vessels belong to companies that are now extinct.
Environmentalists from organizations such as Bahía Viva warn that the substances contained in the boats threaten species such as dolphins, seahorses and sea turtles.
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