World News for Students of English

11-05-2021 07:00

Capri is a southern Italian island and it has problems with illegal fishing.

Local politicians are asking the government for help. They want to make a marine reserve where fishermen and tourists cannot go. Divers harvest mussels which are very valuable and harvesting them is illegal. Divers use hammers and even explosives, which badly damages rocks and coral reefs. Coral reefs need many years to grow again.

On the black market, one kilogram of mussels costs up to 240 dollars. The problem is that local restaurants buy them. Recently, local police stopped two illegal groups who harvested mussels in Capri. They sold over 7.5 kilograms of them in just a few months.

Difficult words: harvest (to pick fruit, animals or fish to eat), valuable (something that costs a lot of money), coral reef (an underwater area of sea animals which look like rocks and where many other animals live).

You can watch the original video in the Level 3 section.