Environmental Protection Minister Gila Gamaliel: "We located the crude oil tanker that polluted the shores of Israel. It is owned by a Libyan and was carrying cargo from Iran to Syria. We will settle accounts with the environmental criminals who defiled the shores of our country, and demand compensation on behalf of all the citizens of Israel for the damage to health, nature, animals and the landscape."
At the end of an intensive investigation led by the marine unit of the Ministry of Environmental Protection in the last two weeks, with the help of partners from Israel and international organizations, the Ministry of Environmental Protection managed to locate the oil tanker that polluted the shores of Israel.
The team was headed by the director of the marine unit of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Rani Amir, the head of the special investigation team, Rami Peleg; Nir Levinsky, the chief investigator, attorney Yoni Shamir from the Green Police of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Maayan Chaim Marine Unit and Yoav Ratner. They also assisted in the investigation with the assistance of the Seas and Lakes Research Institute and a company Windward the Israeli company that specializes in tracking maritime transport for ship owners and cargo using artificial intelligence, and in combination with data from foreign agencies such as the American NOAA and the European EMSA,
The Ministry of Environmental Protection emphasizes that no party had prior information about a suspicious stain that led to the incident, which was discovered for the first time only when the tar blocks landed on the shores of Israel on February 17. Therefore, all the analysis of the events is retrospective, by tracking the ships' data and satellite photos.
The investigation team formulated the following picture of the situation: the Emerald tanker is old, about 19 years old, and therefore cannot be accepted in European or American ports. It carries 112 thousand tons of crude oil. The crude oil spill occurred between February 1 and 2, within tens of kilometers of Israel's coast, within Israel's economic waters.
Retrospective documentation of a spot on February 5 was found in the European satellites, which could be associated with the same elevator tens of kilometers from the coast of Israel. This spot may be an early incarnation of the spot that was discovered on the 11th of the month about 50 km off the coast of Israel, and according to the models from this location the blocks of tar landed on the coast of Israel.
The laboratory tests of the samples taken by the Ministry of Environmental Protection immediately after the incident and in the following days showed that it was crude oil, and because of this the list of potential suspects was reduced from about 35 ships to four tankers: two tankers were ruled out due to their location in the days leading up to the incident; Another tanker was tested in Spain by a local team as well as in Greece by the Israeli investigation team and was completely ruled out as a source of contamination, and the fourth tanker, which is now in Iran, is the one that was located as the cause of the incident.
From the analysis of satellite images and the running of models carried out by the researchers of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the team of the Seas and Lakes Research Institute and the team of the Israeli company Windward, it appears that the ship escaped crude oil from Iran to Syria. The tanker left the Iranian area when it was "dark", without an AIS system (automatic positioning system). Before the Suez Canal, she turned on the devices, passed through the canal in the area of Egypt, and before entering Israel's economic waters, she turned off the system again.
Between February 1-2, she polluted Israel's economic waters while moving and with devices turned off, and when she arrived in the Syrian region, she turned the devices back on. Between February 3 and 14, Syria unloaded all the crude oil it had on board to other vessels. Towards the end of February, 170 kilometers of coastline, from the head of the Nakra to the coast of Ashkelon - practically the entire coastline of Israel (as well as that of Lebanon) were covered with black tar stains.
It should be noted that in this period of time, in retrospect, satellites discovered two more spots in the area where the ship was between Cyprus and Syria. The ship returned to Iran again by the same way of hiding the devices in Israel's economic waters, until it reached the port in Iran, where it is currently anchored.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection, together with the Shipping and Ports Authority, will see to it that the State of Israel claims compensation from the International Fund (IOPC 1992) and will also contact the insurers of the Emerald tanker.
"As an Israeli company for whom the sea is important, we mobilized from the first moment to assist the Ministry of Environmental Protection in locating the source of the disaster, and we donated the use of our system voluntarily. Windward's system and researchers provided high-quality intelligence based on artificial intelligence through which the incident was deciphered," says Ami Daniel, CEO and founder of Windward.
Think twice about increasing the flow of oil from Eilat to Ashkelon
The Minister of Environmental Protection, Gila Gamliel, revealed: "There must be an urgent discussion with all the relevant government officials regarding the plan to increase the volume of crude oil transportation activity on the Katzaa lines; What we saw this week on the beaches in the serious tar incident is tiny compared to the quantities of oil that are involved in the case of Katza; Emphasis should be given to the potentially serious consequences for the environment, which could change the face of the area in the event of a disaster and cause irreversible damage.
The Minister said these things following the plans to increase the volume of oil transportation activity in the Europe-Asia Pipeline (EAP), which may allow the transport of hundreds of thousands of tons of fossil fuels in the territorial waters of the State of Israel.
"There is no need to exaggerate the serious environmental consequences that may occur in the waters of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, as we experienced in Za'ir Anfin just last week, when quantities of oil spilled infinitely smaller than those we are talking about in the case of Katza. These things are reflected in the planning aspect, which results in an increase in the activity of transporting fossil fuels in such a sensitive place as the Eilat Bay, considering the expansion and establishment of tourism in the city of Eilat - in what is portrayed as a step in the wrong direction."
"On the political-global side, this is a clearly non-environmental initiative of increasing crude oil transportation volumes, instead of encouraging investments in renewable energy and a low-carbon economy. Also, the risks of an oil spill in the Gulf of Eilat will increase, and accordingly the risk in Ashkelon will also increase, with an emphasis on the sensitivity of the ecosystem in the Red Sea."
Finally, Minister L concluded, "Reducing Israel's use of fossil fuels, which is being led by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, is a strategic national goal, which is necessary to reduce air pollution and the morbidity and mortality resulting from it. Israel has pledged to promote a transition to a low-carbon economy, as part of the international process led by the OECD and the UN, to combat the climate crisis."
It is not certain that the Ministry of Energy, which actually serves as the office of the gas tycoons, is even listening.
More of the topic in Hayadan:
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Serious and good guys. It is appropriate to direct more resources to the field of maritime enforcement
We will reckon freely with those who in the quarantine were infected and violated the instructions of their government.
With the one who did not pay a subscription to the Marine Navigation Radar.
With the one after Tagol such a situation negatively blames undeveloped countries as its head.
With the one who took care of her husband and thus their acquaintances at the expense of the state treasury. With all these gifts she could finance any prevention and treatment of the disaster but again. Every day she takes care of her house!
Didn't she discover Gamaliel.