Israel closed all its Mediterranean beaches until further notice after an offshore oil spill deposited tonnes of tar across more than 160km of coastline in what officials are calling one of the country’s worst ecological disasters.
Activists began reporting globs of black tar on Israel’s coast last week after a heavy storm.
The deposits have wreaked havoc on local wildlife, and the Israeli Agriculture Ministry determined on Sunday that a dead young fin whale that washed up on a beach in southern Israel died from ingesting the viscous black liquid, according to Kan, Israel’s public broadcaster.
Israel’s Nature and Parks Authority called the spill “one of the most serious ecological disasters” in the country’s history.
The environmental protection, health and interior ministries issued a joint statement warning the public not to visit the entire length of the country’s 195km Mediterranean coastline, cautioning that “exposure to tar can be harmful to public health”.
Representatives from a coalition of Israeli environmental groups said the environmental protection ministry was woefully underfunded and that existing legislation did little to prevent or address environmental disasters.
They cautioned that this disaster should be a wake-up call for opposition to a planned oil pipeline connecting the United Arab Emirates and Israeli oil facilities in Eilat, home to endangered Red Sea coral reefs.