How families risk their lives harvesting toxic green mussels in Indonesia

In Indonesia’s Jakarta Bay, thousands of families are trapped in debt as they harvest green mussels, one of the last surviving life-forms in the increasingly polluted waters. But as the bay offers less, their loans snowball, trapping them in an endless cycle of debt. That pushes them back into the toxic waters that have already killed two-thirds of shellfish in the bay.

In Indonesia’s Jakarta Bay, thousands of families are trapped in debt as they harvest green mussels, one of the last surviving life-forms in the increasingly polluted waters. But as the bay offers less, their loans snowball, trapping them in an endless cycle of debt. That pushes them back into the toxic waters that have already killed two-thirds of shellfish in the bay.