Satellite Pics Show a Dozen Oil Slicks Off Israeli Shores

YERUSHALAYIM

Satellite images of oil slicks at various distances from Israel’s coastline were published on Sunday, including one that could have been the source of the black tar now defacing the country’s beaches and killing marine life, The Times of Israel reported.

The environmental organization Greenpeace obtained the photos from the European Sentinel satellite which showed what appeared to be a dozen oil slicks already visible in the days before a storm washed tons of tar onto Israel’s coastline.

Greenpeace Israel said that “when it comes to the marine environment, there is no monitoring, no enforcement and no emergency plans [by the Israeli authorities]” and that this was a “very serious and inconceivable failure.”

One satellite image from February 11 showing an oil slick 28 miles (44 kilometers) from the coast was thought to be the same one that the Environmental Protection Ministry referred to when it said it had evidence of a spill on the same date “around 50 kilometers” from the shore.

“The oil stains we have uncovered today are stains on the conduct of a government that disregards nature and man and has not taken care to be minimally prepared for such a disaster,” Greenpeace Israel’s director Jonathan Aikhenbaum said.

“A sunny country needs to invest in a smart future and stop the addiction to fuels of the past,” he said.

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