The recent oil spill in Israel is unlikely to have any immediate impact on Maltese waters.

Speaking to Lovin Malta, a spokesperson from the Ministry for the Environment continued to say that they’ll “always have concerns about the environmental damage caused anywhere around the world through oil pollution accidents or other unfortunate incidents”.

Yet they confirmed that, given the current information surrounding the incident, there was no reason to believe that the oil spill will have any direct impact on Malta’s marine environment.

These comments follow a recent oil spill in Israel which has devastated nearly 160 kilometres of coastline, causing untold amounts of damage to both nature and wildlife in the area. In light of the incident, the cause of which is still being investigated, Israel has banned all seafood from the Mediterranean until further notice.

The spill has since also affected Lebanon’s shores as well.

Should Malta turn out to be impacted by the spill, the Ministry confirmed that “Malta has the necessary protocols and set-ups to monitor the situation” to be able to react accordingly should any risk to contamination of Maltese waters be present.

They also noted that Malta hosted the headquarters of the UN’s Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Response Centre for the Mediterranean Sea (REMPEC), which plays a crucial role in coordinating responses to major oil pollution incidents occurring across the Mediterranean.

Thus far, REMPEC has assisted in the ongoing investigations into the source of the oil spill, alongside contacting nearby Eastern Mediterranean countries to confirm whether they had observed any impact in their own waters.

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