Oil from the attacked tanker covered the beaches of the Emirates
The UAE authorities are forced to close the beaches to visit, as oil carries ashore. ATOR said that the oil spill did not affect the demand from tourists and the rest of Russians
Oil from the GEM NO.2 tanker attacked near the Strait of Hormuz is spreading along the UAE coast, forcing authorities to close beaches and coastal areas, the BBC reported.
The attack on the ship occurred between 9 and 10 October. According to satellite images examined by the Broadcasting Corporation, the oil spill spread more than 35 km from the site of damage to the tanker.
On the eve of the UAE authorities reported that the consequences of the incident affected the beaches near the city of Umm al-Quwain.
GEM NO.2 is a crude oil tanker built in 2017 by JMU (Tokyo, Japan), flying the flag of Panama. Its gross capacity is 156,853 tons.
The UAE’s Ministry of Climate Change and Environment said it had “immediately started localizing the spill” to limit the oil’s environmental impact.
Steve Widdicombe, director of the Sharjah Centre for Marine Scientific Research, told the BBC the impact on the environment was “inevitable”. However, it is too early to assess the extent of the damage.
The BBC notes that oil spills can lead to the immediate death of marine animals and other organisms. Widdicombe pointed out that the spill could also affect the animals' ability to reproduce.
Now the oil spill is spreading towards the islands of Sinia and Khor al-Beida, where coral reefs, thickets of sea grasses and salt marshes are located, as well as green turtles and the endangered Halawi rays.
ATOR told RBC that the immediate consequences of the oil spill from the tanker for tourists were expressed in the closure of beaches in the emirate of Umm al-Kuwain and the emirate of Sharjah, which are not popular with Russians.
“There are no hotels on Al Hamriyah Beach in Sharjah. The emirate of Umm el-Kuwain is the smallest of the emirates of the UAE and is not popular among Russians as a resort destination, here tour operators sell tours to only 6-8 hotels of the budget and medium segment. Umm el-Kuwain’s share in UAE sales is on average 0.3-0.5% of the total volume of tours sold for autumn. Thus, it can be summarized that the oil spill did not affect the demand and rest of Russians in the UAE, the ATOR reported. Nevertheless, tour operators-members of ATOR are engaged in the resettlement of tourists from the hotels of the emirate of Umm el-Quwain to the hotels of neighboring Emirates, where swimming is possible.
In early October, a tanker with 750 thousand barrels of oil exploded on a sea mine in the Strait of Hormuz, after which a severe fire began on the ship. As reported by the Iranian Agency Tasnim, citing the IRGC Navy, the tanker tried to pass on an unauthorized route despite the warnings of the Iranian military.
On October 17, the Navy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) reported the explosion of a supertanker with more than 2 million barrels of crude oil on board. On the same day, another super tanker exploded.
