Oil Spill Hits The Seabed

It appears not much coverage is happening for this. All I have gatherd is estimates set clean up at ten years or more and the International Community has only promised about $50 million of the $200 million needed to recover from this disaster. You can get some information from the front lines though here. They are organizing volunteer clean up groups in cooperation with the Lebanese Ministry of Environment.

Clean Up Coalition

As of the 4th of Septmber the oil spill had reached the shoed of Syria as reported by the Middle East Times

Snippet:

"As long as the Lebanese coastline has not been cleaned there will be a risk for Syria," Murjan said. "We're waiting for the cleanup in Lebanon so we can get started again."

To protect the coastline in the meantime, special nets have been strung in different locations to trap lumps of oil, Hassan said.

Fishing and tourism in the area have been badly affected by the pollution, Murjan noted. "

And this illustration of the human tragedy and loss of livelihood involvedf rom the Monterey County Herald

The oil spill has also destroyed the livelihoods of many of the country's fishermen.

Along with his three partners, Mostafa Azmar, 43, used to catch from 100 pounds to 1,500 pounds of fish a day. Now his boat lies moored in a cove filled with crude oil that burns the nostrils. The wiry, shirtless fisherman looked with dismay at his stained fishing boat and damaged nets.

''The sea is everything to us,'' he said. ''Lebanon wouldn't be Lebanon without the sea, and the sea wouldn't be the sea without Lebanon.''

In a report by MSNBC on the 21st of September Commander Christian Nedelec said "It's going to take a year before it's back to normal,". He is part of an eight man group helping the Lebanese goverenment with the cleanup effort. It sure woulb be nice to have reports flooding in about Israel helping with this cleanup and that more governments were stepping in to help as well. Any economy based on marine life or the sea there is practically dead and will be for a long time.

What also suprises me is what little coverage Aljazeera has given this story. Only two reports since it became an issue.

Lebanon oil spill crisis (7/28/2006)

UN sounds Lebanon oil spill alarm (8/8/2006)

Apparently they don't consider it newsworthy, which seeing as the spill has reached Syria, one would think it would be taken more seriously.

You can get updated info from the people on the front lines here.

Oil SPill Lebanon

I think that we should start making sure that the tankers that carry oil should be made as leaktight as possible. Also, there should be safety preactions for the oil tankers to reduce the chance of a oil spill.