Black Sea Fuel Oil Spill: Environmental Impact and Cleanup Efforts

New emissions of fuel oil have been recorded in the Black Sea as a result of the accident of two Russian tankers.

This was reported by Krym.Realii with reference to the Russian Emergencies Ministry.

According to official information, pollution was detected at 14 sites where work is underway to eliminate the consequences of the disaster.

The Russian authorities claim that 713 tons of contaminated sand and soil have already been collected in occupied Crimea, and 213 kilometers of the coast have been cleaned. In Sevastopol, the amount of oil pollution removed reached 665 tons.

In the annexed Crimea, more than 1,300 tons of sand and soil contaminated with oil products were collected after the tanker accident in the Kerch Strait on December 15, 2024.

Before that, Odesa environmentalists discovered that jellyfish poisoned by fuel oil were dying en masse on the coast of Odesa region. According to Ivan Rusev, an employee ofthe Tuzly Estuaries National Nature Park, there were 2-3 jellyfish per meter on the sand on a two-kilometer stretch of coastline, with a total of about 5,000 individuals. There were even more of them in shallow water areas, but it was not possible to count their number. The scientist suggested that the jellyfish could have consumed nanofractions of oil products along with plankton, which could have serious environmental consequences.

Meanwhile, on the coast near the village of Mykolayivka, Serhiyivka community, Odesa region, environmentalists also discovered new areas contaminated with fuel oil. On January 29, utilities in Odesa region began work to clean up the coast from oil pollution. Earlier, employees of the Tuzly Estuaries National Park found fuel oil on the park's coast, which they collected and handed over to Vladyslav Balynskyi's private laboratory. After that, the Commission on Technogenic and Environmental Safety and Emergencies at the Odesa Regional State Administration held an extraordinary meeting.

The accident in the Kerch Strait became known on December 15. The shipwreck occurred near Cape Panagia in the Temryuk district of Krasnodar Krai, in the southwest of the Taman Peninsula, 12 kilometers from the village of Taman. It is the eastern entrance to the Kerch Strait from the Black Sea. According to official data, both tankers could have been carrying about 8,000 tons of oil products.

Андрій Колісніченко