<\/p>\n
A fisherman tries to remove some of an invasive plant called a Hydrilla verticillata Thursday, April 30, 2026, in Buenavista, Colombia.<\/p>\n
Ivan Valencia\/AP<\/p>\n
Jhon Cantillo, a local environmental and social leader, poses for a photo as he travels through an invasive plant called a Hydrilla verticillata Thursday, April 30, 2026, on the outskirts of Buenavista, Colombia.<\/p>\n
Ivan Valencia\/AP<\/p>\n
A fishermen tries to navigate while surrounded by an invasive plant called a water hyacinth, also known as Eichhornia crassipes, Thursday, April 30, 2026, on the outskirts of Nueva Venecia, Colombia.<\/p>\n
Ivan Valencia\/AP<\/p>\n
Homes are surrounded by a water hyacinth plant, also known as Eichhornia crassipes, in Nueva Venecia, Colombia, Thursday, April 30, 2026.<\/p>\n
Ivan Valencia\/AP<\/p>\n
Santander Cueto, a fisherman, removes pieces of an invasive plant from his netting Thursday, April 30, 2026, in Buenavista, Colombia.<\/p>\n
Ivan Valencia\/AP<\/p>\n
A fisherman throws his net to fish Thursday, April 30, 2026, on the outskirts of Cienaga, Colombia.<\/p>\n
Ivan Valencia\/AP<\/p>\n
A boat navigates between homes surrounded by an invasive plant called a water hyacinth, also known as Eichhornia crassipes, in Nueva Venecia, Colombia, Thursday, April 30, 2026.<\/p>\n
Ivan Valencia\/AP<\/p>\n
Fish are unloaded while surrounded by an invasive plant called a water hyacinth, also known as Eichhornia crassipe, Thursday, April 30, 2026, in Nueva Venecia, Colombia.<\/p>\n
Ivan Valencia\/AP<\/p>\n
A child jumps into a container of water Thursday, April 30, 2026, in Nueva Venecia, Colombia.<\/p>\n
Ivan Valencia\/AP<\/p>\n
A fisher throws his net Thursday, April 30, 2026, on the outskirts of Cienaga Grande de Santa Marta, Colombia.<\/p>\n
Ivan Valencia\/AP<\/p>\n
The children are transported by boat to go to school near homes surrounded by an invasive plant species called water hyacinth plant, also known as Eichhornia crassipes, Thursday, April 30, 2026, in Buenavista, Colombia.<\/p>\n
Ivan Valencia\/AP<\/p>\n
Santander Cueto, a fisherman, removes pieces of an invasive plant from his netting Thursday, April 30, 2026, in Buenavista, Colombia.<\/p>\n
Ivan Valencia\/AP<\/p>\n
A heron tries to fly from an invasive plant called a Hydrilla verticillata that coats the water Thursday, April 30, 2026, on the outskirts of Nueva Venecia.<\/p>\n
Ivan Valencia\/AP<\/p>\n
Girls walk to school surrounded by an invasive plant called a water hyacinth, also known as Eichhornia crassipes, Thursday, April 30, 2026, in Buenavista, Colombia.<\/p>\n
Ivan Valencia\/AP<\/p>\n
A man navigates near an invasive plant called a water hyacinth, also known as Eichhornia, in front of a church Thursday, April 30, 2026, in Nueva Venecia, Colombia, where dozens of people were killed by illegal armed groups on November 22, 2000.<\/p>\n
Ivan Valencia\/AP<\/p>\n
NUEVA VENECIA, Colombia (AP) \u2014 Leaning over the side of a small speedboat, Jhon Cantillo scoops up a thick clump of bright green vegetation, holding it up before gesturing toward the horizon, where the plant spreads across the waters as far as the eye can see.<\/p>\n
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From above, the plant forms dense, almost carpet-like mats that stretch across the surface. Up close, its long strands extend deep below the water, with roots reaching toward the lagoon bed, making it difficult to remove completely.<\/p>\n
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The scenes are unfolding in Colombia\u2019s Cienaga Grande de Santa Marta, a vast coastal wetland on the Caribbean coast about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the city of Santa Marta. What was until recently a lifeline for fishing and transport is now being choked by dense vegetation, turning it into what he describes as an unfolding environmental crisis.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing here today is a problem. One that affects not only movement or fishing, but the community as a whole,\u201d said 32-year-old Cantillo, a local environmental and social leader from Cienaga Grande de Santa Marta.<\/p>\n
Over the past year, residents say the fast-growing invasive plant native to Asia \u2014 Hydrilla verticillata \u2014 has spread rapidly across the wetland after first appearing around mid-2025. The dense vegetation, which some locals refer to as \u201chorse tail,\u201d is choking fishing routes, clogging waterways and restricting access to areas where residents collect water, while driving up costs in communities that rely almost entirely on the lagoon for their livelihoods.<\/p>\n
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The Cienaga Grande de Santa Marta is one of Colombia\u2019s most important fishing ecosystems, serving as a nursery for many species.<\/p>\n
In Nueva Venecia and Buenavista \u2014 two isolated fishing communities built almost entirely on wooden stilts over the water \u2014 large swaths of open water are now covered by the invasive plant. The communities themselves are largely informal and exist outside many basic state services.<\/p>\n
Nueva Venecia \u2014 the older of the two, founded in 1847 as a fishing settlement \u2014 is home to roughly 4,500 people living in about 500 colorful houses. Buenavista, which emerged in the 1950s, has around 1,150 residents and 163 similarly vibrant homes, where residents travel between houses, shops and schools by small boats or canoes.<\/p>\n
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“A year ago, there were canoes fishing here. Teachers and students crossing the lagoon. Today, what we see is a problem,\u201d Cantillo said.<\/p>\n
A growing crisis for fishing communities<\/p>\n
The impact is rippling through already vulnerable communities. Fish catches have dropped, transport has become more difficult and families are facing rising costs as they are forced to buy potable water.<\/p>\n
In Nueva Venecia, one small-scale fisherman stood shirtless in the midday heat, pulling brittle strands of dried vegetation from his fishing nets, which he had laid out in the sun to make them easier to clean.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe can\u2019t work because of this plant,\u201d said 61-year-old Santander Cueto. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t let us cast our nets \u2014 everything gets tangled.\u201d<\/p>\n
What was once a routine task now takes significantly longer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe lagoon’s completely covered. There\u2019s nowhere left to fish,\u201d said Dem\u00f3stenes Guerrero, 58, a fisherman and representative of a fishing association in Buenavista.<\/p>\n
In some areas, groups of residents head out in wooden boats to cut narrow \u201clifeline\u201d passages through the thickest vegetation, allowing canoes to pass without getting their propellers tangled. These efforts are labor-intensive and largely driven by the community itself, and must be repeated every few days as the fast-growing plant quickly closes the routes again.<\/p>\n
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The wetland spans about 428,000 hectares (1,600 square miles) of lagoons, mangroves and marshes \u2014 roughly the size of Los Angeles \u2014 and has been a UNESCO biosphere reserve since 2000.<\/p>\n
Pollution and changing water flows fuel the spread<\/p>\n
The Cienaga Grande de Santa Marta is fed by the Magdalena River \u2014 one of Colombia\u2019s main waterways \u2014 which carries untreated wastewater from across much of the country, said Juli\u00e1n Arbelaez, a water and sanitation engineer working in the region.<\/p>\n
That influx of nutrients, including nitrogen and phosphorus, creates ideal conditions for invasive species when water slows in wetlands like this one.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThat load causes the river to enter a state of eutrophication,\u201d Arbelaez said, referring to a process in which excess nutrients fuel rapid plant growth.<\/p>\n
The vegetation is also cutting off access to cleaner water sources. Residents typically travel by boat to collect freshwater from channels connected to the Magdalena River, but many of those routes are now blocked. As a result, Arbelaez said, people are increasingly collecting water closer to their homes \u2014 often in areas contaminated by untreated sewage.<\/p>\n
Residents say another invasive plant, Eichhornia crassipes, which floats on the water\u2019s surface, has long been present in the lagoon and also disrupts fishing and transport, though its impact has been less sudden.<\/p>\n
Local leaders say changes in water flow have also contributed to the crisis, with freshwater now dominating areas where saltwater once helped suppress or kill Hydrilla verticillata.<\/p>\n
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Sandra Vilardy, a professor at Universidad de los Andes who has a doctorate in ecology and who has worked in the region for about 20 years, said there is still limited research on how the plant arrived and that current explanations remain hypotheses.<\/p>\n
She said one of the most likely pathways is maritime transport, with the plant potentially entering through major river systems before spreading into wetlands through smaller vessels and dredging activity. A second possibility, she said, is the release of aquarium plants into waterways, a common cause of biological invasions globally, though she noted that explanation appears less likely in this case given the region\u2019s environmental conditions.<\/p>\n
Communities say response has been slow and insufficient<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a monster in terms of growth,\u201d Cantillo said, describing how it spread from a limited presence early last year to surrounding entire communities within months.<\/p>\n
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Even attempts to remove it can make the situation worse, as fragments can break off and spread further. Residents say efforts to remove the plant have largely been limited to small-scale manual clearing by fishermen and sporadic pilot efforts by authorities, with no effective large-scale solution in place.<\/p>\n
The crisis is now pushing some residents to consider leaving altogether.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe now face a risk that we didn\u2019t have 20 or 25 years ago \u2014 the risk of mass displacement,\u201d Cantillo said.<\/p>\n
Protests and road blockades have already taken place as frustration grows over what locals describe as a slow and insufficient government response.<\/p>\n
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Alfredo Mart\u00ednez, director of CORPAMAG, the regional environmental authority, said Hydrilla verticillata is not officially classified as an invasive species in Colombia and that national guidelines for its control are still pending. He said monitoring and removal efforts are underway with local community involvement, adding that no further expansion has been observed since March and that lower water levels may be slowing its spread.<\/p>\n
C\u00e9sar Rodr\u00edguez Ayala, a community leader in Nueva Venecia, said the crisis is affecting nearly every aspect of life.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the fisherman can\u2019t work, the shop doesn\u2019t sell,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are living a very difficult situation, economically and environmentally.\u201d<\/p>\n
While mechanical removal methods exist, complete eradication is unlikely in the short term due to high costs and limited capacity, according to Cantillo.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe are part of Colombia too,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez said. \u201cWe live on the water, but we also deserve to be seen \u2014 and helped \u2014 in a moment like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Associated Press\u2019 climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP\u2019s standards<\/a> for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fisherman tries to remove some of an invasive plant called a Hydrilla verticillata Thursday, April 30, 2026,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[11669,153,11671,389,11668,11670,1561,2317,2314,11673,11672,95],"class_list":{"0":"post-21936","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-valencia","8":"tag-alfredo-martinez","9":"tag-asia","10":"tag-cesar-rodriguez-ayala","11":"tag-colombia","12":"tag-fishing-invasive-species-environment-plants-colombia-hydrilla-verticillata","13":"tag-julian-arbelaez","14":"tag-package-100024-ap-online","15":"tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","16":"tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","17":"tag-product-32501-ap-online-latin-america-and-caribbean-news","18":"tag-sandra-vilardy","19":"tag-valencia"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}