Dubai: A beach on the eastern coast of the UAE was closed after oil was detected, the Khor Fakkan municipality said on Monday, with tankers repeatedly coming under attack in the nearby Strait of Hormuz.
"Al Luluia beach has been temporarily closed after oil patches were detected on the beach," the municipality said.
Last week, an explosion occurred aboard the crude oil tanker VIEIRA while it was transiting the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Oman, according to maritime security firm Vanguard Tech.
Wim Zwijnenburg, an environmental open-source investigator from Dutch peace organisation PAX, told AFP that "a large oil spill was observed on November 6 on Sentinel-1 radar imagery, one day after the crude oil tanker VIEIRA was reportedly struck by a missile".
Satellite imagery from Sunday showed a spill off the eastern coast of the United Arab Emirates "roughly 160km long, with clear patches of dark oil, indicating crude oil," he added.
"This spill is linked to the VIEIRA as imagery shows the crude oil tanker 65km off the coast of Fujairah, still leaking oil," he added.
Several oil spills have been detected off the coasts of Gulf countries, with Iran attacking tankers as part of its efforts to blockade the Strait of Hormuz.
Last month, the UAE reported an oil spill from a tanker off its western coast in the northern emirates. It later announced the tanker had stopped leaking.
Beaches in the emirates of Umm Al Quwain, Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah had been closed at the time.
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