Ship sunk by Houthis threatens Red Sea ecosystem
The US military confirmed the sinking of a UK-owned ship in the Red Sea on March 2nd, according to Reuters.
The announcement echoed a warning from Yemen’s internationally recognized government in Aden, that the Belize-registered Rubymar’s 21,000 metric ton cargo of hazardous fertilizer posed a threat to marine life.
The vessel is the first lost since Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi militants began targeting commercial shipping in November 2023.
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Statements by the Yemeni government and US Central Command (CENTCOM) claim the vessel sunk in the southern Red Sea late at night on March 1st, after being attacked on February 18th, according to AP.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) stated on X, that the sunken ship “presents a subsurface impact risk to other ships transiting the busy shipping lanes of the waterway,” after the initial attack had caused an 29km (18 mile) oil slick.
Yemen’s foreign minister, Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, stated in an X post: “The sinking of the Rubymar is an environmental catastrophe that Yemen and the region have never experienced before. It is a new tragedy for our country and our people. Every day we pay the price for the adventures of the Houthi militia …”
Director of the Marine Science Station at the University of Jordan, Ali Al-Sawalmih, said that the release of such large amounts of fertilizer into the sea does pose a serious threat to marine life.
The overload of nutrients may stimulate excessive algae growth, which deprives regular marine life of oxygen in a process called eutrophication.
The overall impact depends on how the fertilizer is depleted by ocean currents and how it is released from the sunken vessel, according to Xingchen Tony Wang, an assistant professor at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Boston College.
Al-Sawalmih called for a plan to be adopted by Red Sea countries “to establish a monitoring agenda of the polluted areas in the Red Sea as well as adopt a clean-up strategy.”
The southern Red Sea’s ecosystem features pristine coral reefs, coastal mangroves, and diverse marine life.
In 2023, the UN prevented a potential environmental disaster by removing over a million barrels of oil from a decaying super tanker moored off Yemen’s coast. A similar operation may prove more difficult to achieve amid the Houthi’s ongoing campaign, and the potential of Israel’s war in Gaza spilling into the wider Middle East.
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Houthi drone and missile attacks have forces shipping firms to divert freight around the south of Africa, causing delays and higher costs in global trade.
The group, who control the north of Yemen and other large areas, claim that their campaign is a show of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Their attacks have provoked US and UK airstrikes on Houthi positions, with other navies sending vessels to the region to bolster the Suez Canal trade route.
Reuters / AP
