Oil slicks seen from space: the devastating impact of boat strikes on fragile Gulf ecosystems

Since the US war on Iran began in February, there have been hundreds of oil spills, posing a ‘generational’ threat to wildlife The vast, dark slicks in the strait of Hormuz are visible from space. Throughout October, oil tankers were struck by missiles or sea mines in the waterway and spilled crude into the sea.

The pollution has spread across the Gulf, contaminating coastlines and threatening to cause lasting damage to marine ecosystems that are home to dolphins, sea turtles and countless species of fish. Eight months into the war between the US and Iran, one of the world’s busiest oil shipping routes has become a battlefield and the centre of a growing environmental disaster .

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