'It's not perfect - but it's not dead': the mission to save Lake Maracaibo - a photo essay

The lake in the heart of Venezuela's oil territory is coated with slimy crude and neon green algae. Now fishers, scientists, local people and even human hair are being deployed to clean it up? All photographs by Rosana SilvaArmed with picks and shovels, 20 anglers slowly arrive at the shore of Lake Maracaibo with the sun's first light. Their mission is not to fish, as their ancestors have done, but to try to rescue the lake that sustains their livelihoods. Wielding metal rakes, they enter the water and remove the sticky black layer that blankets the surface of one of the world's largest and most ancient lakes.From an aerial perspective, the lake in north-western Venezuela appears as a droplet shape, with a greenish hue that contrasts with the deep blue typical of vast waters. On the western shore, the 64-year-old Italo Boscán rakes a slimy coat of oil from the lakeside. "Our only machines are our hands, but we are trying hard to save the lake," he says, as he takes a short break from his arduous work. Continue reading...