Days after plaguing Pakistan's strategic Gwadar coast, an oil spill — likely from tankers hit by the US and Iranian strikes in and around the Strait of Hormuz — has now reached the country's only protected marine island, posing a serious threat to its rich but fragile biodiversity, an official told Anadolu on Tuesday.
A thick layer of crude oil has already covered a vast stretch of the southwestern Gwadar coast and penetrated sensitive zones, with authorities struggling to clean up the shoreline.
"The issue is expanding and getting more serious," Abdul Rahim, a marine scientist associated with the Gwadar Development Authority, told Anadolu, confirming that the oil spill has reached Astola Island.
Located in the northern part of the Arabian Sea, east of the Pasni district in the southwestern Balochistan province, Astola is the country’s largest offshore island and the only marine protected area known for its rich marine biodiversity.
The island is one of the world’s largest breeding sites for the yellow-billed tern, a small seabird found in Latin America, and supports a wide variety of water birds such as coursers, gulls and plovers.
Fearing that the oil slick could cause significant harm to the island's unique biodiversity, Rahim said that the latest development, reported over the past 24 hours, is a continuation of the Gwadar coast incident.
"This (oil spill) has added to a slew of threats already constituting a serious threat to the island's ecology," Rahim added.
Muhammad Asghar, an official of Balochistan's Environment and Climate Change Department, told Anadolu that the department is coordinating with different government agencies to formulate a joint strategy to clear the oil spill from Astola Island.
The government authorities and marine biologists are still trying to find out the exact cause and origin of the oil spill, but they are focusing on different possibilities — all linked to the US-Iran war.
According to Rahim, one of the strong possibilities is that it is the leakage from oil tankers, which tried to cross the Strait of Hormuz and were targeted by the US or Iranian forces.
Also, he added, the spilled oil may have reached Pakistan from Kharg Island, Iran's primary oil export hub, which was bombed by the US and Israel during the war.
