Bloomberg News
@Bloomberg-News·2.8M subscribers·40.1K videos
Endangered Sea Turtles Rescued, Cleaned After Disastrous Oil Spill in Israel
Posted
February 23, 2021
Views
7,565
Likes
206
Comments
43
Engagement
February 23, 2021
7,565
206
43
3.29%
Every word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
1:39Now PlayingWhen it comes to saving sea turtles, Israeli rescuers have discovered that mayonnaise is a miracle.
Employees at Israel's National Sea Turtle Rescue Center are treating endangered green sea turtles affected by a devastating oil spill that has coated Israel's coast with thick black tar.
The spill, which Israel's Nature and Parks Authority has called one of the country's worst ecological disasters on record, has coated most of Israel's 120 miles (195 kilometers) of Mediterranean coastline with sticky tar. It has caused extensive damage to wildlife, including sea turtles.
Guy Ivgy, a medical assistant at the Sea Turtle Rescue Center in Michmoret, north of Tel Aviv, said 11 turtles are being treated. The center is run by Israel's Nature and Parks Authority.
“They came to us full of tar. All their trachea from inside and outside was full of tar," he said.
Workers have been removing the toxic substance from the reptiles' airways and found a creative way to flush it out of their digestive tracks.
“We continue to feed them substances like mayonnaise, which practically clean the system and break down the tar," Ivgy said. The recovery process is expected to take a week or two, after which the turtles are expected to be released back into the wild.
Thousands of volunteers and clean-up crews have mobilized to remove tar from Israel's beaches, a task that is expected to take months.
Israel's Environmental Protection Ministry says it is investigating the cause of the oil spill.
The incident is believed to have taken place in early February, and Israel said it received no prior warning before an estimated 1,000 tons of tar started washing up on shore. The tar has also washed north to Lebanon.
On Monday, an Israeli court barred publication of all details of the investigation, including the name of the suspected ship believed to have spilled the oil, its route and ports of call. An Israeli journalists' association petitioned the court on Tuesday to have the order lifted.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Bloomberg Quicktake brings you live global news and original shows spanning business, technology, politics and culture. Make sense of the stories changing your business and your world.
To watch complete coverage on Bloomberg Quicktake 24/7, visit or watch on Apple TV, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, Fire TV and Android TV on the Bloomberg app.
Have a story to tell? Fill out this survey for a chance to have it featured on Bloomberg Quicktake
Connect with us on…
Breaking News on YouTube
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.
