Why Rubymar’s sinking in the southern Red could be an environmental catastrophe

A photo shared by the US Central Command on its X handle, @CENTCOM

The waters of the Red Sea, the long and narrow inlet of the Indian Ocean, are at an ‘environmental risk’ after Belize-flagged, UK-owned bulk carrier Rubymar sank in the southern part of the Sea on March 2, the United States military has warned.

“The approximately 21,000 metric tons of ammonium phosphate sulfate fertilizer that the vessel 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,” the US Central Command posted on its X handle on March 3, 2024.

The ship’s hull had been struck by a Houthi anti-ship ballistic missile on February 18. It had been slowly taking on water since the unprovoked attack, according to the US Central Command.

According to news agency AFP, the Rubymar is the first ship to be sunk by the Houthis after they started a campaign to attack global shipping in the Red Sea in November 2023. The attacks were in solidarity with the beleaguered Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, who have been under attack from Israel as reprisal for the October 7, 2023 attacks inside its south by Hamas, which controls the Strip.

The ship could not be towed as authorities in Yemen, Djibouti and Saudi Arabia refused to allow entry into their ports, AFP quoted Roy Khoury, the chief executive of Blue Fleet Group, the ship’s Lebanese operator, as stating.

It also quoted Abdulsalam Al Jaabi of the Yemeni government’s environmental protection agency warning of dire consequences due to a ‘double pollution’ — first from the fuel oil on board, which he estimated to be around 200 tonnes and second from the fertiliser.

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Fish, other marine organisms, seaweed and coral reefs, all could be impacted due to the oil and fertiliser, said Al Jaabi. Yemen is among the poorest countries in the Arab World and has been in the throes of a civil war since 2014.

That is when the Houthis, most of whom are from the Zaidi subsect of Shia Muslims and allegedly backed by Tehran, overthrew Yemen’s government. This prompted an intervention from predominantly Sunni Saudi Arabia, Iran’s regional rival in West Asia, which sought to restore the government.

Al Jaabi warned that almost half a million fisherfolk in the area could be affected due to the Rubymar’s sinking.

Ecologically-rich Sea

The Red Sea stretches from the Egyptian, Israeli (Port of Eliat) and Jordanian (Port of Aqaba) coasts in the north to the Yemeni, Djiboutian, Eritrean and Somali coasts in the south.

It connects with the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean through the human-made Suez Canal and to the Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean through the Strait of Bab el Mandeb (‘Gate of Tears’ in Arabic).

It was a vital trade artery in antiquity, connecting Greece, Rome, Syria, the Holy Land and Egypt with India. The most famous work on the Red Sea from the ancient world is Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, attributed to an unknown Greek sailor and trader.

The sinking of the Rubymar could cause havoc in the sea, which is known to be rich in biodiversity that is endemic and not found anywhere else.

“The RSGA (Red Sea and Gulf of Aden) ecosystems supports a rich biological diversity with a distinct high proportion of endemic species. Several locations and species in the region have global conservation merit,” the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) notes on its website.

It cites the examples of the Socotra Archipelago, Dungonab Bay and Senganeeb Atoll, which are UNESCO Natural Heritage Sites. Farsan and Dahlak Archipelagos in the southern Red Sea (where the Rubymar has sunk) and coral reefs in the northern and central parts of the Red Sea are also distinctive features of the region, according to the UNEP.

“The Red Sea supports high species endemism. According to PERSGA reports (RSGA- SOMER, 2006), about 14.7 per cent Red Sea fishes are of endemic species, which ranks the Red Sea among the top areas of high fish endemism in the world. Furthermore, endemism is remarkably high among some fish families, e.g. around 90 per cent of the Red Sea dottybacks (Pseudochromidae) and triple fins (Tripterygiidae), and 50 per cent of the Red Sea butterfly-fishes (Chaetodontidae) are endemic species. Among invertebrate groups, about 6 per cent of the Red Sea coral, 13 per cent of polycheate, 33 per cent of crinoid, 23 per cent of holothuroid, and 13 per cent of asteroid species are considered endemic,” the UNEP article further adds.

The Red Sea gets its rich biodiversity due to the flow of nutrient-rich water from the Gulf of Aden through the Bab el Mandeb. It is a fact also noted in the study titled Influence of seawater exchanges across the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait on sedimentation in the Southern Red Sea during the last 60 ka (2013) published in the journal Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology.

The sea’s coral reefs have exhibited relatively higher resilience compared to other parts of the world, where there have been several bleaching incidents and subsequent die-offs.

“However, declining and fluctuating trends are reported for several fisheries in the region, which are mainly linked to degradation of their essential coastal habitats and overfishing,” the UNEP says.

Other major concerns include human population growth; habitat destruction; overexploitation of marine resources; navigation risks and threats of hydrocarbon spills; pollution from urban /industrial/ tourism hotspots; illegal disposal of pollutants by transiting vessels; and the impacts of climate change.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) had expressed concern on January 26, 2024, over increasing disruptions in global trade caused due to the impact of climate change and war on shipping in three key sea lanes: The Black Sea, the Red Sea and the Panama Canal.