Rescuers using mayonnaise to treat turtles caught in Israel oil spill

A 6- month- old green sea turtle is cleaned from tar after an oil spill in the Mediterranean Sea, at Israel’s Sea Turtle Rescue Center, in Michmoret, Israel, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021. Only six sea turtles were rescued and survived after a disastrous oil spill that has blackened most of the country’s shoreline and reached beaches of neighboring Lebanon. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Rescuers saving turtles from a devastating oil spill that has coated Israel’s coast with thick black tar have found an unlikely ally – mayonnaise.

The spill, which Israel’s Nature and Parks Authority has called one of the country’s worst ecological disasters on record, has coated most of Israel’s 120 miles of Mediterranean coastline with sticky tar, and has caused extensive damage to wildlife, including sea turtles.