Oil Spills in the Persian Gulf Raise Environmental Alert

Two oil slicks have appeared in Iranian waters, according to satellite images and videos verified by Reuters, as cross-attacks on tankers and other vessels by Iran and the United States fuel concerns about environmental damage in the Gulf.

A potential ecological disaster is unfolding off the coast of Oman, outside the Strait of Hormuz. There, the grounded tanker Caroline Bezengi is spilling Russian crude oil over a protected marine area, causing a massive oil slick estimated at nearly 2,000 square kilometers.

One of the slicks appeared off the southern tip of Qeshm Island, the large dolphin-shaped island located in the Strait of Hormuz, very close to the Iranian coast, as shown by images from Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites.

Wim Zwijnenburg, an open-source environmental researcher at the Dutch peace organization PAX, noted that the dark hue in parts of the slick indicated it was heavy fuel oil, while a lighter, diluted slick stretched for about 160 kilometers.

A dark, bubbling liquid was sighted reaching the beaches of Suza, on Qeshm Island, contrasting with the turquoise water surrounding it, as seen in a video published on August 11 and verified by Reuters.

"This is the largest slick I've seen in recent months, practically since the conflict between Iran and the United States began," said John Amos, executive director of SkyTruth, an organization that uses satellite imagery to detect oil spills, calling it "a major incident."

A second slick was sighted near the smaller Sirri Island, in the central Gulf, about 100 km southwest of Qeshm and home to some of Iran's offshore oil and gas production, satellite images showed.

Satellite captures of Qeshm Island were taken on August 10 and those of Sirri Island on August 13.

"The slick off Qeshm Island likely originated from a leak in the Minoan Pioneer, a Liberian-flagged dry bulk carrier," said Samir Madani, co-founder of the monitoring service TankerTrackers.com.

The Minoan Pioneer was hit by an unidentified projectile near the coast of Oman in an alleged Iranian attack while sailing through the Strait of Hormuz on August 3, leaving one sailor missing, maritime security sources reported.

The same leak likely also affected Qeshm Island, a maritime security source told Reuters.

An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baqaei, stated in a post on X that oil pollution from the Gulf had reached Qeshm Island and that preliminary tests "indicate a foreign bulk carrier as the source."

Reuters could not independently confirm the cause of either slick or identify the substances involved.