The Strait of Hormuz turns the color of oil

Two oil slicks appeared in the Strait of Hormuz at once. The confrontation has already reached the ecology.

"One oil slick appeared at the southern tip of the island of Qeshm, a large island in the shape of a dolphin in The Strait of Hormuz near the coast of Iran," Reuters reports, citing images from the Sentinel-2 satellites of the European Copernicus mission.

A researcher in the field of environmental open sources of information from the Dutch PAX, Wim Zveinenburg, told the agency that the dark color of some areas of the spot indicates that it is fuel oil, while a lighter, diluted spot stretched for about 160 km.

"This is the biggest stain I've seen in recent months, really since the beginning of the conflict between Iran and the United States," said SkyTruth CEO John Amos.

According to Reuters, the second spot was spotted near the island of Sirri in the center of the Persian Gulf, about 100 km southwest of Qeshm, where some Iranian offshore oil and gas production facilities are located.

The appearance of an oil slick near the island of Qeshm probably occurred due to a leak from the cargo ship Minoan Pioneer under the Liberian flag, said the co-founder of the monitoring service. TankerTrackers.com Samir Madani.

It is known that on August 3, an unknown projectile hit the cargo ship near the coast of Oman.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Bakai said on Friday that oil pollution had reached Qeshm Island and preliminary data "point to a foreign bulk carrier as a source of pollution."