Environment

Oil Spill in the Mediterranean

A suspected oil tanker leak off the coast of Israel last week has led to Israel’s biggest maritime ecological disaster in many years, with authorities closing the country’s beaches and beginning a massive cleanup effort.

Chunks of sticky, black tar began washing up late last week. On Sunday, Israel’s Environmental Protection Ministry warned people to avoid going to beaches from the country’s northern border with Lebanon all the way to the south near the Gaza Strip. Tar exposure can make people sick and irritate the skin.

The tar pollution has already affected wildlife. Volunteers rushed to rescue sea birds, turtles and fish that were covered in oily residue or had ingested oil. One species that has ecologists particularly worried is a reef-building snail called Dendropoma petraeum. As the Mediterranean Sea heats up due to global warming, the snail’s population on the Israeli coast has plummeted. That makes the species particularly vulnerable to other ecological disasters.

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