Lebanon's Month-Old Oil Slick Sinks

In this photo released by Greenpeace Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2006, a crab covered with oil, is seen on the coast near the seaport of Tabarja, northern Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2006, which is heavily polluted by oil, as a result of the Israeli bombing mid-July of the Jiyeh power plant, south of Beirut. After a month slathered over waters off Lebanon's coast, an oil spill unleashed by Israeli bombardment has started sinking to the sea floor _ blanketing marine life with a tar-like sludge, experts and the U.N. said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Greenpeace, Jeroen Oerlemans) (Jeroen Oerlemans - AP)

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- An oil slick caused by Israeli bombing has begun sinking to the floor of the Mediterranean, blanketing marine life with sludge, according to a Greenpeace video that shows dead fish along the sea bottom.

The scuba diver's videotape, released Tuesday by Greenpeace, also shows the sunken slick sliding ominously toward a lone red sea urchin rooted in the sand, its tentacles waving in the current. The footage graphically details some of the environmental destruction a month after the oil spill began sinking, creating what has been called Lebanon's worst-ever environmental disaster.

The U.N. has said the spill could take as long as a year to clean up and cost $64 million.

"You have the bottom of the sea filled with fuel _ between the rocks and little valleys. It's just dotted and covered with black tar," said Mohammed El Sarji, head of the Lebanese Union of Professional Divers.

Sarji recorded the footage, which showed oil spread four inches thick over a 100-yard-wide area of the sea bed near Beirut.

Some 110,000 barrels began pouring into the Mediterranean after Israeli warplanes on July 14 hit a coastal power plant at Jiyeh, 12 miles south of Beirut. More missiles hit a day later. Six fuel tanks ruptured in all, sparking explosions that knocked out a dike meant to prevent spills.

Israeli military officials said Tuesday that the fuel tanks were attacked as part of a broader campaign against infrastructure used by the guerrillas to transport weapons. The attacks were meant to disrupt Hezbollah's fuel supplies, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity under military regulations.

At first, the oil slathered 85 miles of Lebanon's coastline _ reaching into Syria _ and blocked sunlight from penetrating the water's surface, killing small plants on which many fish feed. Now that it is sinking, the oil threatens plants and fish that live on the sea floor.

"Some of it became denser than sea water and sank to the bottom. It's like a big thick blanket that smothers living organisms," said Rick Steiner, a professor at the University of Alaska and oil spill expert who worked on the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster.

"That was three times larger this, but it was crude oil, and this is fuel oil that was going to run generators (at the power plant). This stuff is heavier and thicker _ and much harder to work with. It gets stuck to rocks and it's difficult to wash off," he said. "But the good thing about it being so thick is that we might be able to get it off the sea bed with rakes or shovels."

U.N. officials on Tuesday expressed worry at the slow pace of the cleanup, hampered by Israeli bombardment and blockades for a month while oil continued to seep out into the Mediterranean.

"There have been hostilities in the area, and the environmental side of Lebanon's problems unfortunately couldn't be addressed until now," said Nick Nuttall, spokesman for the U.N. Environment Program.