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Fishermen remove fish from nets after returning from a fishing trip on the Mediterranean Sea, in the Israeli Arab village of Jisr az-Zarqa, in the early morning of Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021 (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
JISR AZ-ZARQA (AP) After weathering a year of the coronavirus pandemic, the fishermen of an Arab village in central Israel have been dealt another blow by a mysterious oil spill in the Mediterranean.
Grappling with its worst ecological disaster in years, the government this week ordered a precautionary ban on selling seafood.
Despite the ban, Jisr az-Zarqa’s fishermen went to sea Thursday to bring in their catch.
richcarey/iStock via Getty Images
Not everyone loves mayonnaise. It’s a controversial condiment that doesn’t have quite the same widespread appeal as ketchup or mustard. But if you ask animal conservationists, there’s no debate: Mayonnaise has become an unlikely ally in the fight to save endangered green sea turtles.
According to the Associated Press, a recent oil spill on Israel’s coast has created an environmental crisis for wildlife. More than 1000 tons of tar have washed ashore over 120 miles. Sea turtles native to the region are being subjected to the toxic substance that covers their bodies and enters their digestive systems. Rescued turtles have been moved to the Sea Turtle Rescue Center in Michmoret to receive treatment.
Op-edWe could have reduced, if not prevented, this catastrophe
Israel’s coast is devastated by an oil spill. If only we’d had an emergency plan
A national response plan for marine oil pollution incidents was ordered in 2008; it was never implemented. Now the beaches are closed, seafood is banned, and further disasters loom
David Horovitz is the founding editor of The Times of Israel. He is the author of Still Life with Bombers (2004) and A Little Too Close to God (2000), and co-author of Shalom Friend: The Life and Legacy of Yitzhak Rabin (1996). He previously edited The Jerusalem Post (2004-2011) and The Jerusalem Report (1998-2004).
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Israeli soldiers clean tar off the Palmachim beach following an offshore oil spill which hit most of the Israeli coastline. February 22, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The Environmental Protection Ministry on Thursday pushed back against accusations of a tardy response to the oil spill disaster that has seen almost all of Israel’s Mediterranean beaches closed down because of tar pollution.
Reports of the pollution emerged last Thursday when a dead 17-meter baby fin whale washed up on Israel’s southern coast, along with other wildlife.
Asked why it took so long for Israeli authorities to get a grip on what had happened, the Environmental Protection Ministry’s director of the National Unit for the Protection of the Marine Environment, Rani Amir, said, “We had no early warning and no one in the Mediterranean knew about it.”
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Despite the ban, Jisr al-Zarqa s fishermen went to sea Thursday to bring in their catch.
Sami Ali, a representative for the village s fishermen, insisted it was safe to keep on fishing.
“The tar floats on the sea, on the water, it doesn’t penetrate deep. It does damage to the reefs, maybe also seaweed, the beach and many facilities. Also it damaged our equipment,” he said. “But the fish do not eat things that are not natural.”
Scientists disagree, saying it s far too risky to keep fishing as they continue to analyze the disaster.