{"id":391010,"date":"2026-04-21T20:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T20:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/391010\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T20:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T20:56:10","slug":"oil-spills-from-the-iran-war-are-visible-from-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/391010\/","title":{"rendered":"Oil spills from the Iran war are visible from space"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Multiple oil spills are visible from space after Iranian and US-Israeli strikes<\/a> hit oil facilities and ships in the region, with experts warning of an impending environmental catastrophe.\n <\/p>\n

\n Satellite images are giving an insight into destruction in the region, including to the fragile biodiversity of the Persian Gulf. Oil spilt there has the potential to affect the lives and livelihoods of people along the Gulf coastlines, as well as the region\u2019s rich marine life.\n <\/p>\n

\n One image, taken on April 7, shows a spill spanning more than five miles in the Strait of Hormuz near Iran\u2019s Qeshm Island. An Iranian vessel, the Shahid Bagheri, was leaked oil in the same area after US forces hit the vessel on February 28, Greenpeace Germany spokesperson Nina Noelle told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

\n Another image shows oil around Lavan Island after what Iranian state media called a hit \u201cby enemies\u201d on an oil facility near the island\u2019s coast on April 7. Video shared on social media and geolocated by CNN also shows a large fire erupting from the Iranian oil refinery.\n <\/p>\n

\n The hit on Lavan is a \u201cmajor environmental emergency,\u201d said Wim Zwijnenburg, a project leader at Dutch peace organization PAX, who tracks the consequences of strikes around the Gulf.\n <\/p>\n

\n At least five locations on Lavan were damaged, with subsequent spills happening around the island and oil leaking into the sea, he told CNN. The spills are \u201calso now reaching the Shidvar Island\u2026 which is a protected site. It\u2019s uninhabited, but it has a range of protected species there,\u201d he added.\n <\/p>\n

\n Shidvar Island is a coral island in the Persian Gulf, around one mile east of Lavan Island, that is rich in wildlife, including turtles and sea birds.\n <\/p>\n

\"Oil<\/p>\n

\n Satellite images also show spills just off Kuwait\u2019s coast on April 6. Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it targeted fuel and petrochemical facilities in Gulf countries, including Kuwait, that day in retaliation for an attack on a petrochemical complex in southwestern Iran.\n <\/p>\n

\"Oil<\/p>\n

\n In the worst case scenario, these oils spills could have consequences for thousands of people, especially those living along the coast of Iran, including contaminating the fish they rely on for income and food, Zwijnenburg warned.\n <\/p>\n

\n The spills threaten other marine life, too, such as turtles, dolphins and whales<\/a> that might ingest or become trapped in the oil. They could also potentially affect the filtering systems of desalination plants, on which nearly 100 million people<\/a> in the region rely for clean water.\n <\/p>\n

\n At this stage, it\u2019s hard to quantify what damage these spills may be causing, but there are fears of an ecological catastrophe, especially if more ships are hit. There are an estimated 75 large oil tankers in the Gulf, carrying a total of almost 19 billion liters of crude oil, according to data from Greenpeace Germany.\n <\/p>\n

\n Oil spills can have huge, wide-ranging impacts, \u201caffecting the entire ecosystem, from microorganisms to fish, birds, and marine turtles that depend on mangrove habitats,\u201d said Greenpeace\u2019s Noelle.\n <\/p>\n

\n They are very hard to clean, she said, due to \u201cstructural complexity, limited accessibility and challenging working conditions,\u201d adding that the ongoing conflict makes the prospects of gaining access to the Gulf to clean it up all but impossible.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Multiple oil spills are visible from space after Iranian and US-Israeli strikes hit oil facilities and ships in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":["post-391010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}