By Faisal Abu Bakr | 2024-03-07

Chemicals and oil from a ship targeted by the Iran-backed Houthis that sank March 2 with approximately 21,000 metric tons of ammonium phosphate sulfate fertilizer on board will have a devastating impact on marine life, sources said.

The Rubymar, a Belizean-flagged, British-registered and Lebanese-operated ship that was destined for Belarus with a cargo of fertilizer, was in transit near Bab al-Mandeb on February 18 when the Houthis struck it with two missiles.

Water began to flow into the vessel's engine room, causing its stern to sag, and oil spilled out into the sea, causing a miles-long slick.

The ship finally sank beneath the waves at 2:15am March 2, the US military's Central Command said, warning that fertilizer that the Rubymar was carrying "presents an environmental risk in the Red Sea."

"As the ship sinks it also presents a subsurface impact risk to other ships transiting the busy shipping lanes of the waterway," it said.

Water sources and seawater desalination plants in coastal communities may also be affected, Yemeni official Faisal al-Thalabi, a member of a crisis cell tasked with dealing with the Rubymar, told AFP.

United Nations (UN) special envoy Hans Grundberg said five experts from the UN Environment Program are due in Yemen this week to conduct an assessment in coordination with the Yemeni environment ministry.

To contain a potential environmental crisis, Yemeni authorities will dispatch teams to collect water samples and survey beaches for pollution, al-Thalabi said.

Catastrophic impact

Coral reefs in the Red Sea and the Hanish archipelago "that took hundreds of years to reach the form we see today" could be destroyed, Fathi al-Dabeesh, who holds a doctorate in marine sciences, told Al-Fassel.

Just one liter of oil or diesel can pollute 600 liters of water, he said, pointing out that the Rubymar contains "120 tons of diesel alone."

"This constitutes a major environmental disaster, and its consequences will emerge based on how materials were maintained and stored on the ship," he said, adding that the pollution will have a "catastrophic impact" on fishermen.

Fishermen are deeply concerned by reports of the "presence of toxic materials on the ship that will cause pollution in the sea," said Khaled Dobla, who serves on a committee of fishermen in al-Khokha.

This will adversely affect marine life, he told Al-Fassel, "including fish, the main source of income for all families living along the Red Sea coast."

Abdulsalam al-Jaabi of the Yemeni government's environmental protection agency warned of "double pollution" from the oil and fertilizer that could impact 78,000 fishermen and their families, AFP reported.

The overall contamination could incur "significant economic costs," especially on coastal communities that depend on fishing for survival, he warned.

Houthis disrupt livelihoods

"It would be insane for me to return to the sea to fish," Mokha-based fisherman and father of five Mustafa Thabet told Al-Fassel.

The sinking of the Rubymar has "turned the sea from a blessing into a curse," he said.

The majority of al-Hodeidah province's approximately three million residents rely on agriculture for their livelihood, while the rest rely mostly on fishing, al-Hodeidah media office director Ali Hamid Al-Ahdal told Al-Fassel.

The Houthis' coup of September 2014 and the ensuing war disrupted agriculture in the province, he said, with some agricultural land turned into "mine farms" and other land commandeered for military camps and headquarters.

Following the demise of agriculture in al-Hodeidah, "all that remained for its residents was the fishing profession," he said.

And now, even that is at risk after the Houthis sunk the Rubymar, he said.