The menace of tar balls — oily globules of tar thrown up by the sea — have returned to sully Goa’s beaches proving a major headache for beach goers who are left with oil sticking to their feet and covering those bathing in the sea with an acidic stench. The phenomenon has left tourism stakeholders worried that persistent tar balls will drive tourists away from the beaches.
According to Drishti Marine, the lifeguarding agency manning Goa’s beaches, tarballs streaks have been noticed across beaches of both North and South Goa. The agency has issued a directive to tourists asking beachgoers to be watchful before venturing into the sea.
“Beach tar sighted across Baga, Calangute (North Goa), Bogmallo to Rajbagh (South Goa). Please be careful when walking, especially if barefoot,” the agency said.
Tarballs are an annual affair in Goa that arrive usually at the time of the churning of the sea — prior to the monsoons in the month of May and after the monsoons during the months of September-October. A tarball is a semi-solid blob of crude-oil, and it is formed due to weathering of crude-oil in the ocean.
The tarball pollution in Goa was first reported in the 1970s, its negative effects have been widely reported in recent decades. More than sullying the beaches, according to the National Institute of Oceanography “tarballs pollute marine environments, including pelagic, benthic and beach regions. Some tarballs may originate from natural oil sources present in the ocean.”
“Tarballs contain hydrocarbons, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which pose significant environmental risks,” a study by NIO in 2015 said.
This has left fishermen and tourism stakeholders worried about damaged nets, fish caught being rendered unsafe to eat and dead fish washing ashore.
For long, scientists have scratched their heads over the origin of the tar balls until in 2013 when a major fingerprinting study on the hydrocarbons that made up the tarballs that washed ashore in the prior years found that it was made up from oil flushed into the ocean by passing oil takers that traverse the Arabian between the Middle East and SouthEast Asia as part of deballasting processes of their oil tanks.
“It is possible that the tankers that are going to the Middle East with SEACO are likely to clean the tanks in the Arabian Sea. The resulting oil undergoes a weathering process, leading to tarball formation. With the arrival of SW monsoon, all the floating tar balls start moving towards the west coast of India, and eventually deposit on the nearby beaches consistent with the circulation pattern,” the study suggested.
A subsequent study by NIO in 2016 which backtracked sea surface currents using computer modelling provided further insight into the origin of the tar balls found that while the tar balls that arrive after the monsoons between September and October was from the passing tankers, but that which washes ashore in May has its origin in the oil spills around the Bombay High oil fields.
Goa’s environment minister Nilesh Cabral has promised to write to the Centre for a solution, saying that the matter was outside the jurisdiction of the state government. Yet despite knowing the source and the potential damage the fugitive oil can cause, there has been little action.
“We have written to the environment ministry earlier as well (last year) and this year we will also write to the union home ministry and the director general of shipping to track down those who are causing pollution in the high seas and take action against them. It is not just Goa, it is the entire west coast that is encountering the problem. Instructions have been sent,” chief minister Pramod Sawant said.