EcoOcean is an Israeli nonprofit organization founded in 2002 by the Weil family and a group of prominent scientists and environmentalists.
The organization's mission is to empower people to care for the marine and coastal environment of Israel and the region.
Volunteers from the organization, together with staff from the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, carried out a cleaning operation of the beaches of Israel.
They worked along the tide line in areas such as the Taninim River Nature Reserve, near Jisr az-Zarka, and also in the Dor and Habonim reserves, south of Haifahan.
What they found raised alarm bells about the level of pollution on the coasts: they removed about 70 bags of soft tar, a highly polluting substance.
The tar is believed to be the product of an oil spill on March 2, 2021, linked to a Syrian-owned ship, which forced the closure of all beaches from Rosh Hanikra to Ashkelon. The pollution from this incident continues to this day, but at the time it caused the death of several marine species, including turtles, birds and fish.