Megamar Corp. has extracted approximately 500,000 cubic meters of sand from the seabed to create a 2.5-kilometer-long beach fill, as part of a tourist project the company is building by the sea in the Chame district. The company hires tractors that wait for the tide to go out on Punta Chame beach to move the sand from the seabed (in the intertidal zone) to the fill located right in front of the plot where it is constructing a tourist project. This is the largest case of illegal sand extraction in Panama, recorded in the province of West Panama. Megamar Corp. has been extracting sand without a concession from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MICI) since approximately 2016. The market price of seabed sand, extracted by companies with MICI concessions, is around 10 dollars per cubic meter, which allows us to estimate that the 500,000 cubic meters of sand illegally extracted by Megamar Corp. have a market value of 5 million dollars. The sand extraction has changed the morphology of the beach, which is evident when comparing Google Earth satellite images of the Punta Chame area from 2013 and 2024. Until 2016, this beach was a sea turtle nesting site. Neighbors of Punta Chame have stated that, a few years ago, they filed a complaint for environmental damage.
Illegal Sand Extraction in Panama
Megamar Corp. has illegally extracted 500,000 cubic meters of sand from the seabed off the coast of Punta Chame, causing significant environmental damage and causing 5 million dollars in damages.
