Key facts
- Greenpeace said it identified more than 500 oil spills across the Gulf, Hormuz and the Arabian Sea since February 28.
- Greenpeace expert Nina Noelle said the mapped spill footprints total approximately 20,000 square kilometers, almost the size of Wales.
- Greenpeace counted more than 133 attacks on oil tankers since the conflict began.
- The Washington Institute for Near East Policy counted more than 30 confirmed or reported attacks in October, the worst month.
- A strike on the supertanker Gem No 2 off the UAE left a slick stretching more than 21 miles, per satellite imagery dated October 19.
- The IRGC has been blamed for most attacks; US forces also targeted tankers, disabling Iranian vessels crossing a US naval blockade.
Satellite images show dark oil slicks across the strait of Hormuz after tankers were struck by missiles or sea mines throughout October, spreading pollution across the Gulf and onto coastlines. Eight months into the war between the US and Iran, the strait, the only maritime passage between the Gulf and the Arabian Sea, has become both a battlefield and the center of an environmental disaster. A naval blockade has made ground-level documentation almost impossible, so researchers have relied on satellite analysis, environmental experts and marine biologists.
Greenpeace said it identified more than 500 oil spills through satellite monitoring across the Gulf, the strait and the Arabian Sea since the war began on February 28. Nina Noelle, a Greenpeace expert on environmental disaster relief, said adding the daily mapped footprints gives a cumulative total of approximately 20,000 square kilometers, almost the size of Wales. Greenpeace counted more than 133 attacks on oil tankers since the conflict began, and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy counted more than 30 confirmed or reported attacks in October, the worst month, with attacks continuing into November.
Among the most polluting October attacks was a strike on the supertanker Gem No 2 off the United Arab Emirates, which left a slick stretching more than 21 miles; a satellite image dated October 19 showed a large black patch moving into clear water off Umm Al Quwain. Greenpeace estimated an early-June tanker attack produced a slick off Oman covering more than 600 sq km at its peak. Wim Zwijnenburg, an environmental researcher with the Dutch peace organization Pax, said two Iranian naval vessels hit in March continued leaking oil for months. An attack on the Liberian-flagged Minoan Pioneer on August 3 was also linked to a major slick.