Defending Our Mediterranean

Memories of a war: Lebanon Oil Spill in the Mediterranean Sea

Hussein — 2007-07-30T15:25:02+01:00

Last week marked the first anniversary of the Lebanon oil spill disaster caused by Israeli attacks in July 2006.

The Israeli air fighters attacked, last year, the Jiyeh facilities located 28 Km to the south of Beirut. More than 10 thousand tons of fuel oil spilled in the water of the Mediterranean Sea, from Jiyeh up to the north till the shores of Syria, to form one of the worst environmental disasters the Lebanese coast has suffered.

Of course, that is not all I remember from the July 2006 Israeli war on Lebanon; I live in south Lebanon, and bombings on our village was intense and some of it barely 100 meters away from our house. I lost a few good friends and neighbors in this war, my brother was injured and my father’s shop damaged; Back then, everyone - those who stayed in town - were constantly dodging air raids, moving from one place to another, trying to help people under the rubbles. It is called a war, but from my experience, it seemed like a trail of endless human sufferings.

Anyway, the war was over, and the Lebanese people and their friends had 3 major concerns:
- Rebuilding what is destroyed.
- Removing cluster bombs: almost a million of these extremely damaging bombs were thrown on us!
- Mitigating the oil spill impacts.

Greenpeace started, under the coordination of the Ministry of Environment and other organizations, the assessment and evaluation of the oil spill disaster, and helping in the oil spill cleanup and finding solutions. The “Rainbow Warrior” visited Lebanon to help in this issue, especially underwater with divers, and ran operations for three weeks until more material and vessels arrived. I remember seeing the ship in Beirut, but did not have the chance to get aboard….

Now, after one year, after all the cleanup efforts, some bags are still lying on some of our beaches, waiting to be handled, and risking to melt and spread in the water again, due to the summer warm sun.

In this first anniversary of the oil spill disaster, and as part of the “Defending Our Mediterranean” campaign, Greenpeace published a report and a short video about the Lebanon oil spill, stating the updates after one year, showing the other threats that endanger our sea, and of course the suggested solutions: Marine Reserves.

The waters of the Mediterranean Sea takes almost a 100 years to renew - because it is almost a closed sea – and this make it more fragile and requires more attention and more care.

You can watch the Video and read the report here: One year on Lebanon oil spill in the Mediterranean Sea.

You can join our “Mediterranean Defenders” list to receive updates and an Action Plan to help : Signup the Mediterranean Sea photo petition (if you dont have a related image, you can still sign up with just comments)

Whether you live on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, or you just spend a summer holiday on its beautiful coasts, or even just love Mediterranean food, you can help to save and protect the Mediterranean Sea, so you can continue to enjoy it.

The last war was not the first in the region, and unfortunately, maybe it will not the last, but like a UN envoy said after the cease fire:"I never seen a country recover that fast after such a war"… Our Mediterranean Sea needs recovery as well, it needs support and protection. Marine Reserves will provide that.

RIP Atún Rojo

Elaine — 2006-09-03T10:15:51+01:00

by Mike, onboard the Rainbow Warrior in the Mediterranean sea.

It's a tuna graveyard.
©Greenpeace/Pedro Armestre

We picked up anchor in the pre-dawn darkness and slipped in behind a procession of eight trawlers leaving the harbour of Cartagena. The timing was perfect and the Traffic Control Centre was none the wiser to a ninth echo moving on their radars. I have noticed that my heart beats loudly more often as master - I was anxious not to be discovered and wondered how Francis Drake must have felt in 1585 when he stole the guns from the fortified hills surrounding the port.

Impacts of coastal development on seagrass beds

Elaine — 2006-08-30T10:07:57+01:00

by Roger, onboard the Rainbow Warrior in the Mediterranean sea.

Eroding edge of damaged seagrass
bed. ©Greenpeace/Roger Grace

Seagrass beds are a common feature of shallow seas around much of the Mediterranean, and serve important functions as nursery areas, production of organic matter near the beginning of the food chain, and helping protect the seabed from erosion and sediment movement. They also provide a special habitat for small animals and plants which live amongst the fronds of the seagrass, particularly down near the base.

A little jellyfish story

Elaine — 2006-08-30T10:03:38+01:00

by Roger, onboard the Rainbow Warrior in the Mediterranean sea.

Investigating a jellyfish
©Greenpeace/Roger Grace

In recent weeks from the Rainbow Warrior we have seen a lot of jellyfish, particularly a big brown one as in the pictures. Some jellyfish sting humans, but this one seems harmless. I touched the mass of tentacles and felt nothing. Often there are little fish sheltering beneath the jellyfish.

Bon voyage Marseille

Elaine — 2006-08-24T16:33:11+01:00

by Karli, onboard the Rainbow Warrior in the Mediterranean sea.

So, yesterday (23/8) finished around midnight. Today started at 2am, with Francois waking me with information that the tuna fishermen planned to come out from the port to the Rainbow Warrior - peacefully at anchor just outside the harbour entrance - at 6 am. We met for about an hour to discuss what might happen, and what we should do. A checklist was prepared, ending with "sleep while you can".

Tuna fishermen in angry denial

Andrew — 2006-08-23T21:17:57+01:00

by Karli, onboard the Rainbow Warrior in the Mediterranean sea.

Well, what a day.

The Rainbow Warrior is now at anchor at our authorised spot outside Marseille harbour.

We spent the day in a standoff with around 25 French industrial tuna purse-seiners surrounding us. On three occasions this boiled up... the first as we arrived, the second when we were slipping at anchor (which had been dropped in deep water for safety reasons in the first incident) - the second time we raised the anchor to move to a safer anchorage all the vessels again swarmed around us - these are multi-million euro vessels that can go any direction they like and are simply more manoeuvrable than the Rainbow Warrior. Very quickly we had to again drop the anchor.

Marseille - almost there

Andrew — 2006-08-23T20:42:55+01:00

by Dani onboard the Rainbow Warrior in the Mediterranean sea.

It was early in the morning but this was definitely not like any other morning. We've been on course to Marseille for a few days now. The transit has been a bit bumpy for most of the way, but the seas calmed in the early hours of the morning before we arrived in Marseille. The wind was followed by a cosy cold and humid breeze that swept the sky clean to expose all the beautiful stars that could possibly be visible. At that point it came to my mind that we might be experiencing the "calm before the storm".

Search and rescue

Elaine — 2006-08-22T18:40:37+01:00

by Mike onboard the Rainbow Warrior in the Mediterranean sea.

Rescued yacht crew with
Mike, Captain of the Rainbow
Warrior©Greenpeace

Somewhere inside my cabin a phone is ringing; where is the light switch? I scramble in the direction of the sound, narrowly escaping the meter high edge of my bunk. "Captain! I receive mayday on VHF close by!" The anxious Russian accent of the second mate reminds me that I'm on the Rainbow Warrior and that I am the captain. The first night of my command. It's three o'clock in the morning.

Rescue boat

Elaine — 2006-08-21T16:03:13+01:00

by Phil onboard the Rainbow Warrior in the Mediterranean sea.

Crew of stricken yacht
climbing aboard the Rainbow
Warrior after rescue
©Greenpeace

Got woken up at 04:00 this morning. We had just recieved a Mayday distress call from a vessel sinking nearby. As the emergency boat driver I'm one of the first that the bridge officers call. First we prepared the boat for launching. This meant searchlights, medical supplies, extra life jackets, warm clothing and a stretcher. I then went up to the bridge to speak with the captain and look at the chart to see where the vessel was in relation to our ship.

It was at this time I was told that the distressed vessel was a yacht with three crew. The vessel was near the coast about 8 miles from our ship, in a small bay. The chart also showed me that the water in this bay was quite shallow and there were a lot of rocks in the area..

Rainbow Warrior to help MSF mission

tom — 2006-08-02T17:02:17+01:00

With our ship in the region and MSF needing urgent help to get humanitarian supplies to Lebanon we've teamed up to help transporting much-needed supplies to Lebanon. Here's the official statement on the mission -

Friendly cuttlefish on night dive

hibsy — 2006-08-01T17:25:48+01:00

by Roger onboard the Rainbow Warrior in the Mediterranean sea.

On a recent night dive we encountered a small cuttlefish hanging around on the bottom. Looking at first very like a small rock, the animal moved around hardly disturbed by our lights and cameras. Cuttlefish are like squid but have a limey shell inside which sometimes washes up on beaches when the animal dies. These "cuttlefish bones" are sometimes given to cage birds like budgies and parrots to sharpen their beaks on.
The cuttlefish has a very strange eye with a wiggly black slit for a pupil. In the close up picture you can also see the coloured pigment cells in the skin, the size of which can be changed by the animal so it can alter the colour to match the surroundings, and to flash ripples of colour along the back to indicate different moods.

Giant feather-duster worm

hibsy — 2006-07-31T10:49:22+01:00

by Roger onboard the Rainbow Warrior in the Mediterranean sea.

A spectacular tube worm was present on many of our dives in the Mediterranean. Standing about half a metre tall on a parchment-like muddy tube, a spiral of feathery tentacles or gills reaches high into the water where it catches microscopic plankton for food. Standing up from the bottom, the worm looks rather like the old feather-duster used by housemaids for centuries. The detail photo shows tiny feathery branches on the gills, which trap the plankton and pass it along to the mouth of the worm protected in the tube. The feathery gills would be tasty for fish, so at the slightest disturbance the gills are withdrawn in a flash into the tube.

Poisonous Bristleworm common in Mediterranean

hibsy — 2006-07-31T10:36:32+01:00

by Roger onboard the Rainbow Warrior in the Mediterranean sea.

Bristleworms, or Polychaete worms, are very common in the sea, but you seldom see them. They are usually very tasty for fish so they hide away under rocks and in crevices. I was surprised to see a large juicy-looking bristleworm running around on open rock faces underwater, in many of the places we dived in the Mediterranean. It turns out that this worm is poisonous to fishes, and being brightly coloured the fish soon learn not to try to eat it. Bunches of white bristles stick out from each of the many segments of the worm. The bristles are needle-sharp and connected to a poison apparatus. The close view shows the head of the worm, with orange "bonnet", various tentacles, branching red gills along the back, and two black eyes on one side of the head, so the animal has four eyes! If you see this worm, don't pick it up with bare hands! The bristles will stick in your fingers.

The Amazing life of Nudibranchs or Sea Slugs

hibsy — 2006-07-31T09:54:30+01:00

by Roger onboard the Rainbow Warrior in the Mediterranean sea.

Nudibranch Flabellina affinis feeding
on a hydroid colony. Some of the
hydroid animals are visible, like
tiny sea anemones. Others have
been eaten. At the top of
the colony is a purple egg string
laid by the nudibranch.
©Greenpeace/Roger Grace

They say "fact is stranger than fiction". Try this one: Jellyfish, sea anemones, corals and hydroids are all related to each other. They have special stinging cells in their tentacles with which they sting and trap small fish or tiny prey animals. In some types the sting is so strong it is dangerous to humans. The stinging cells are usually triggered by touching the tentacles.
Some nudibranchs or seaslugs specialise in eating hydroids. They have developed an amazing technique whereby they can eat the hydroids without triggering the stinging cells and thus don't get harmed by the poisonous stings. But they go even further than that. When they eat the hydroid the stinging cells remain intact and migrate through the stomach wall and into colourful projections on the back of the nudibranch. Here the stinging cells become embedded in the skin of the nudibranch and are ready to sting a fish or other predator which may try to eat the nudibranch! So the nudibranch uses the defence mechanism of the hydroid to protect itself from predators. Nudibranchs are often very brightly coloured and obvious. This serves as a warning to fish that the nudibranch either tastes horrible or can sting. This is the same reason why butterflies are so colourful - they taste horrible and the colours are a warning to birds not to eat them.

Rent-a-crowd with underwater banners

hibsy — 2006-07-29T10:19:58+01:00

by Roger onboard the Rainbow Warrior in the Mediterranean sea.

With the Rainbow Warrior Mediterranean Tour in full swing calling for a network of Marine Reserves, we took the opportunity to get our message across using underwater banners in four different languages. Four banners required at least eight divers to hold them, and it is hard enough organising two divers to hold one banner properly underwater. The prospect of getting eight divers holding banners, together with a few extra divers just for luck, was quite daunting and I was anticipating a shambles underwater.
Surprisingly the activity went quite well, with expert choreography by our underwater videographer Marco Care who had a knack of getting people to do just what he wanted underwater, using a series of cryptic signals which I personally did not understand. We got shots of the banners in a row on the bottom, in two vertical layers, and floating on the surface against the sun. Hopefully the pictures get the message across to lots of people - Marine Reserves Now!