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Boat parade held in Brazil to protest pollution in Olympic venue

Associated Press
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A woman flies Brazil's national flag on her boat during a protest in the Marina da Gloria in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2015. Boats of all sizes paraded across Guanabara Bay to protest contamination in the waters where where sailing events will be held next year during the Olympic Games. Behind is Sugarloaf Mountain. (AP Photo/Leo Correa) (The Associated Press)

A boater joins a protest against the contamination where where sailing events will be held next year during the Olympic Games, as he rows in the waters of Guanabara bay in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2015. The Living Bay group that organized the protest said that athletes train in the bay under precarious conditions and that the bay should always be in good condition regardless of its use in large events like the Olympics. (AP Photo/Leo Correa) (The Associated Press)

A boater joins a protest against the contamination where where sailing events will be held next year during the Olympic Games, as he rows in the waters of Guanabara bay in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2015. As part of Brazil's Olympic project, authorities pledged more than six years ago to drastically cut the amount of raw human sewage in Guanabara Bay before the 2016 games. But only one of eight promised treatment plants has been built to filter waste from nearby rivers that have become open-air sewage ditches, and the bay's once-crystalline waters remain fetid. (AP Photo/Leo Correa) (The Associated Press)

At least 30 boats of all sizes are taking part in a parade protesting the contamination of Rio de Janeiro's Guanabara Bay where sailing events will be held next year during the Olympic Games in Brazil.

Sailboats, schooners, tourist boats, canoes and fishing boats are making a 7-mile (12-kilometer) round trip from the Marina da Gloria on Guanabara Bay to Urca, a neighborhood located at the foot of Rio's iconic Sugarloaf mountain.

The Living Bay organization organized the event.

It says in a statement that athletes train in the bay under precarious conditions and that the bay must always be in good condition regardless of its use in large events like the Olympics.