After a year of pandemic pandemic, Arab fishermen in central Israel have dealt another blow with a secret oil spill in the Mediterranean.
Tackling the worst ecological disaster in years, the government this week ordered a precautionary ban on seafood sales.
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Fishermen take fish from nets after returning from a fishing trip on the Mediterranean Sea, in the Arab town of Jisr al-Zarqa
(Photo: AP)
Despite the ban, Jisr al-Zarqa fishermen went to sea on Thursday to contain the catch.
Sami Ali, the town’s fisherman’s representative, said it was safe to continue fishing.
“The tar floats on the sea, on the water, it doesn’t go deep. It damages the reefs, possibly also seaweed, the beach and many other facilities. It also damaged our equipment, ”he said. “But the fish don’t eat things that are not natural.”
Scientists agree, and say it is far too dangerous to continue fishing while investigating the accident.
More than 90% of Israel’s 195-kilometer (120-mile) coastline was covered in about 1,000 tons of black tar, as a result of an oil spill at sea earlier this month. The pollution has swept north to nearby Lebanon and has wreaked havoc on the ecosystem, killing seabirds, endangered green sea turtles and other marine life.
The government has not yet identified who it believes is responsible for the spill, and has blocked the publication of the details of the investigation, saying this could jeopardize efforts to bring those responsible to justice. That clean-up is expected to take months.
Authorities have banned people from visiting beaches because of the toxicity of the tar, and on Wednesday the Ministry of Health banned the sale of Mediterranean seafood pending further information.
The ministry said that although they had not yet received evidence that indicated a health risk, the ban was interpreted as a precautionary measure. They said fish were being tested for contamination, and that fishermen and fishmongers had notified the ban.
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A local fisherman named Jumbo returns from a fishing trip on the Mediterranean Sea, in the Arab town of Jisr al-Zarqa
(Photo: AP)
Jisr al-Zarqa, an Arab coastal town south of Haifa, is already feeling the pain in the economic collapse of coronavirus pandemic. The community is one of the poorest in Israel and has long protested what they think about the treatment of discrimination by the authorities. Only half of the city’s fishermen, about 20 people, went to sea Thursday to catch the catch in the morning despite the ban.
While Ali worries about pollution polluting the fish, he worries about how this week’s retail sales have deepened the community’s financial woes.
“We couldn’t sell much. Some of what we ate with our families, ”said Ali.
Thousands of volunteers have worked to clear the poisonous tar off the coast of Israel. But every day the sea awakens new patches.
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Local fisherman keeps tar stranded on the docks from an oil spill in the Mediterranean Sea, in the Arab town of Jisr al-Zarqa
(Photo: AP)
“No one knows how much tar is out there, at the bottom of the sea or elsewhere,” said Arik Rosenblum, director of EcoOcean, the group that directs volunteer efforts.
Together with government authorities, EcoOcean has launched instruments into the ocean that detect the presence of oil and give researchers a better picture.
The full impact of the oil spill on the coastal ecosystem has not yet been assessed, but it is estimated to be huge, said Noa Shenkar, a marine biologist from Tel Aviv University’s school of zoology.
“We have a very solid database of what it was like before the oil spill,” she told The Associated Press. “But we have learned from an oil spill elsewhere in the world that the damage is on biodiversity is usually very important, and for several years you can see the effect. “
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Fishermen load their nets after returning from a fishing trip on the Mediterranean Sea, in the Arab town of Jisr al-Zarqa
(Photo: AP)
The Ministry of Environmental Protection says it has not received prior warning of an oil spill from international organizations, and is doing its best to deal with the disaster. Environmental groups and scientists in Israel have accused the ministry of being slow to take action to ban petrol from the Israeli coast.
For fishermen such as those in Jisr al-Zarqa, the effects of the oil spill will be long-term.
“We have suffered the heaviest and fastest blow,” Ali said, complaining that polluting industries such as offshore gas runoff have “gained legitimacy in the offshore.”
“For us, the sea is not just an income, it is our heritage,” he said.