Israel clears Greek tanker of suspicion over Mediterranean oil spill after inspection

After launching a probe into the oil spill that polluted 40 per cent of its Mediterranean coast in one of the worst ecological disasters, Israel on Saturday gave clearance to the docked Greek vessel that it had held under suspicion. The Israeli government had raised speculations regarding a Greek oil tanker Minerva Helen, which it said, may have caused the humongous tar pollution following an oil leak into the ocean that is now threatening marine ecosystem along the Israeli coast. While the greek vessel company Minerva Marine Inc denied involvement saying that the ship was in ballast at the time of the incident, the Israeli government’s environmental protection wing dispatched an investigation team to probe the vessel it held accountable for the maritime disaster. The investigation, according to Greece’s local press, was conducted conjointly with Greece’s paramilitary Hellenic Coast Guard.

“Following an inspection conducted in Greece on the Minerva Helen tanker, it has been cleared of suspicion of involvement in the severe tar event on Israel’s beaches,” the Israeli government said in an official release.

Israel’s environmental ministry, separately, issued a statement saying that the inspectors conducted “an extensive examination”  onboard the Greek vessel and found no evidence of the source of the oil spill. Earlier, dismissing Israel’s accusations and state media reports, the Greek shipowners labelled Israel’s indictment as ‘baseless and irrational’ as layers of oil blanketed the 160 kilometres (96 miles) shoreline stretching from the Gaza Strip to Lebanon with tons of tar polluting the sea. 

[A woman holds a dead sea turtle covered in tar from an oil spill in the Mediterranean Sea in Gador. Credit: AP]

[People clean tar from an oil spill in the Mediterranean sea in Gador nature reserve near Hadera, Israel. Credit: AP]

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'Massive' clump of tar trails to Lebanon

Israel, initially, suspected at least 5 vessels docked in the Mediterranean Sea, however, later Israel’s environmental minister Gila Gamliel, director of the ministry’s Marine and Coastal Environmental Division Rani Amir, told Israel’s state press that the source of the oil spill was one of the several suspected vessels. Meanwhile, in a recent development, a massive slick of tar along with an oil spill raked to the turtle beach of Lebanon from neighbouring Israel. The oil pollution from the unidentified source clamped on the oceanic surface across the border town of Nagura, stretching until the southern city of Tyre. The spill infiltrated the protected zone, home to endangered loggerhead sea turtles in southern Lebanon as authorities scrambled to clean the swath of the 3.8 square kilometres (almost 1.5 square miles) of coastline. 

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(Image Credit: unsplash/ Representative image)