Nearly a thousand concerned Israeli citizens — including several actors, athletes and, of course, surfers — paddled out, joined hands and formed a circle off of Herzliya on June 22nd for what may end up being a record-breaking protest against an offshore gas development project in the Mediterranean Sea. The 992 protesters — many of whom donned black skull-and-crossbones shirts with the slogan, “Don’t poison us” — demand that the proposed gas rig be relocated further away from the coast.

According to The Jerusalem Post, Israeli authorities say the new platform poses no environment or health threat.

“They want to build a gas rig just 10 kilometers off Dor Beach, near Haifa, instead of above the gas field 120 kilometers into the sea, as is customary all over the world in order to protect public health and the environment,” Ronen Babayoff, one of the main surfers involved with the protest, told Surfline. “Now, 97% of all gas rigs since 2010 are floating deep water gas rigs over the gas fields, a technology which is much safer and less polluting. A condensate spill (a byproduct of gas processing) from a nearshore gas rig is uncontainable, will reach the beaches of Israel within hours, and will destroy half of them for generations.”

Video by Uri Magnus and Galim productions.

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“Friday’s event would be submitted to Guinness World Records for recognition,” reported The Jerusalem Post. “Guinness currently lists a 511-person circle of surfers off Huntington Beach, California, last year as the world-record ‘surfing paddle-out.’”

“First and foremost, this was to show the government of Israel and the gas lords that our beaches and our health are not for sale, that we will do anything and everything to protect our beaches and our way of life,” Babayoff continued. “It was a show of strength and unity. If we break the Guinness record while doing it, that’s great, but not a must. Almost all the surf schools and surf clubs in Israel arrived to the event, including most of the founders of the Israeli surf scene, and most of the champions, too. The buildup to the event also made some influential people (including many celebrities) and organizations (some of them were on the fence) join the ranks of our fight.”

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“We need to state that even though the entire world is moving to renewable energies, we want to win one fight at a time,” Babayoff finished. “We’re not against developing the gas fields found in Israeli’s economical waters — they helped us achieve energy independence (self sufficiency) for the first time and reduced air pollution by 40% in the country due to moving Israel’s power stations. But we want them developed in the least-polluting way, as has been done all over the world since 2010.”

The rig is expected to be shipped from the United States to arrive in Israel by February 2019, and operational by the end of next year.