An oil slick stretching more than 200 kilometers has appeared in the Red Sea, satellite images show, a new environmental disaster in a waterway where commercial ships are under siege by attacks by Yemen’s Houthi militants.
The patch stretches from about 96 kilometers northwest of the Yemeni city of Hodeidah and continues north, the images show.. It appears in Sentinel 2 satellite images taken on July 16 and was not present until July 14.
It was not clear which vessel caused the spill, or whether it was the direct result of a Houthi attack, But several ships have been attacked in the region in recent days, including one, the Chios Lion, with a marine drone.That aircraft carrier was investigating a possible oil spill, the U.K. Navy said Tuesday.
Staying away
The Chios Lion picked up 90,000 tons, or about 600,000 barrels, of fuel oil from the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk on July 2 and was headed to China, according to shipping data compiled by Bloomberg. Most ocean-going merchant ships also use fuel oil as fuel.
Stealth Maritime, the company that manages the ship, said the vessel suffered minor damage and the crew was unharmed. The company declined to comment on whether oil is leaking from the tanker.
The Houthis have been attacking ships in the Red Sea for months in protest against Israel’s war with Hamas. While many ships are avoiding the area and sailing thousands of miles around Africa, some are still facing attacks. The attacks intensified last month, which was the busiest so far this year, culminating in a second ship being sunk by a marine drone.
Earlier this year, when the Houthis sank a ship called the Rubymar, a fertilizer spill occurred. Other ships were damaged and continued on to their destinations or waited to be rescued by specialists.
Given the shape of the spill, its colour and the way it spreads across the sea surface, it is likely to be fuel oil, according to Wim Zwijnenburg, project leader at PAX.based in the Netherlands, which has spent 10 years studying satellite images to identify the environmental impacts caused by conflicts.
Surface winds are pushing the slick southward, and two large gyres in surface currents are making the slick very difficult to navigate.according to John Amos, executive director of the nonprofit research organization SkyTruth.
