From sea turtles to birds and the gentle dugong, the diverse but fragile marine life of the Persian Gulf is threatened by the bombs and oil of war in the Middle East.
The ecosystem was already under pressure from climate change and shipping traffic before the United States and Israel launched their war against Iran in late February, prompting retaliation from Tehran across the region.
According to a March 10 report by the Conflict and Environment Observatory, a UK non-governmental organisation, more than 300 incidents involving environmental risks, including attacks on oil tankers, have been recorded in the region since the conflict broke out.
The geography of the Gulf makes its ecosystem particularly vulnerable.
A semi-enclosed, shallow sea about 50 meters (165 ft) deep on average, it is connected to the Indian Ocean through the Strait of Hormuz. Its slow water renewal (every two to five years) limits the dispersion of oil or other contaminants.
The region is home to the world’s second largest population of dugongs (herbivorous marine mammals known as “sea cows” that are listed as vulnerable), with an estimated 5,000 to 7,500 individuals.
About a dozen species of marine mammals are also found there, including humpback whales and whale sharks.
In total, more than 2,000 marine species have been recorded in the warm waters of the Gulf, including more than 500 species of fish and five types of sea turtles, including the critically endangered hawksbill turtle.
There are also around 100 species of corals which, together with mangroves and seagrass beds, constitute essential breeding and nursery areas for fish and crustaceans.
‘Time bomb’
Greenpeace warned last week that dozens of tankers carrying around 21 billion liters (5.5 billion gallons) of oil were stuck in the Persian Gulf.
“This is an ecological time bomb,” said Nina Noelle of Greenpeace Germany, which has been mapping oil tankers in the region.
Since 1 March, nine incidents involving oil tankers, including attacks, have been reported to the UK Maritime Trade Operations Center (UKMTO), eight of which were subsequently confirmed by the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed responsibility for three additional attacks, although they have not been confirmed by international organizations.
On the ground, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Monday that Israeli attacks on Tehran’s fuel depots constituted “ecocide,” contaminating soil and groundwater and causing long-term health risks to the population.
‘Past experiences’
“The wars of the 1980s and 1990s demonstrate how exposed the ecosystems of the Persian Gulf are to pollution caused by conflict, whether from damage to offshore or offshore oil facilities or from spills from attacks on ships,” said CEOBS director Doug Weir. AFP.
The Gulf War in 1991 triggered one of the largest marine oil spills related to armed conflict, when retreating Iraqi forces deliberately opened oil valves in Kuwait and destroyed oil infrastructure.
The recovery took decades: up to 11 million barrels of oil (1.75 billion liters) were released, contaminating 640 kilometers of Saudi coast and killing more than 30,000 seabirds, according to several studies.
The studies, however, “largely showed minimal impacts on coral reefs,” said John Burt, a biology professor at the Mubadala Arab Center for Climate and Environmental Sciences at New York University in Abu Dhabi.
“This is largely because oil floats, so the dispersion of oil stays on the surface and doesn’t really interact with the corals except in the most superficial areas,” Burt said.
“However, the same cannot be said for intertidal systems,” such as mudflats and salt marshes that line the coast and are exposed during low tide, he added.
“Here, oil spills can have significant, medium-term impacts if the spills reach the coast,” Burt said.
Seabirds are especially at risk because the oil destroyed the waterproofing of their feathers, causing hypothermia and drowning.
bomb noise
The bombs are also a threat to birds in the area.
Their migration could be disrupted by the noise of explosions and plumes of toxic smoke, as the Arabian Peninsula is at the crossroads of important migration routes linking Europe, Central Asia, Africa and South Asia.
“Sea mines and other explosive devices can cause acoustic disturbances affecting marine mammals and other animals, and blast damage to underwater natural structures such as reefs,” Weir said.
In 2003 and 2020, two studies published in Nature and a Royal Society journal found links between the use of military medium-frequency sonar and whale strandings.
