Stains off Israeli coast are not oil spill after all, says Environment Ministry
Minister Tamar Zandberg praises quick work of professionals and vows to ‘continue to be vigilant’ while awaiting final lab results of seawater
The Environmental Protection Ministry said Wednesday afternoon that it did not detect any oil in a suspicious stain off the coast of Israel, but that it would continue to monitor the situation.
“The findings in the field at this time, which ruled out the presence of oil or its derivatives, were presented in the assessment of the situation,” said the ministry, leading to a decision by Environment Minister Tamar Zandberg to shut down what had previously been designated a “tier-3” national incident.
Zandberg said that all ships and other marine vessels involved in investigating the incident would be returned to shore, but that the situation would be continually monitored and that inspectors would be deployed along the coast on Thursday.
“Throughout the day and in intensive scans at sea, so far no findings have been found indicating oil pollution at sea,” she said in a statement. “However, we will continue to be vigilant… we are careful and prepare for the worst, and yet hope for the best.”
Zandberg said that full lab tests conducted on the affected seawater would not be complete for several days.
The R/V Bat-Galim deep-sea research ship, jointly operated by the ministry and the Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research Institute, took samples on Wednesday and sprayed dispersants into the water.
“Suspicious stains” on the surface of the sea 20 to 40 kilometers (12-24 miles) from the shore along a stretch of coast between the central cities of Rishon Lezion and Netanya were first discovered late Tuesday evening.
At the time, Zandberg warned that the suspected oil spill had the potential to become a national or regional pollution incident.
On Wednesday evening, the minister said she was glad she had acted “quickly and treated the event as a national incident,” despite ultimately ruling out the danger of an oil spill. She praised the quick action and cooperation of the ministry with the Israel Defense Forces, Israel Police, Nature and Parks Authority and a variety of environmental nonprofits and private sector actors.
“We received many inquiries from volunteers who already wanted to get to the beaches and were prepared for cleaning,” said Zandberg. “Fortunately, this time we did not need their help, but it warms my heart to see the spirit of volunteering.”
The incident this week came almost exactly a year after the country suffered one of its worst environmental disasters.
Israel was taken by surprise on February 18, 2021, when massive amounts of tar began washing onto its coastline following an oil spill in stormy weather, along with the corpse of a fin whale some 17 meters (55 feet) long.
Over the following days, it became clear that beaches all along Israel’s Mediterranean coast had been contaminated and that wildlife had paid a heavy price.
In the wake of that leak, the sale of Mediterranean fish was temporarily suspended and beaches were closed. Thousands of volunteers rallied to help with the cleanup. The long-term damage to ecosystems still remains to be seen.
