STORY: Croatia is trying to get rid of mystery oil clumps

along part of its coast before tourists arrive

The oil drifted ashore last year along nearly

four miles of the northern Adriatic coast

No official explanation has been given

The clean-up job has already been going on for months

(Silvia Buttignoni, Director, ‘Natura Histrica’)

"The coast is polluted, a large part has been cleaned up. The tourist season is approaching and tourists will be able to come, but a lot of work still remains. /// We ourselves, as Natura Histrica, organized a clean-up action, but we saw that after five, six, seven hours of cleaning we hadn't actually cleaned anything. It was rather a Sisyphean task."

Tourism accounts for 20%

of Croatia’s economy