05 June 2025
(Photo: Ivan Rusev)
Recently, a dead white-sided dolphin was found on 33 kilometers of sandbar in the Tuzly Estuaries National Park.
According to Ivan Rusev, head of the scientific department of the Tuzly Estuaries National Park, a dead small whale, the Azov's, was also found in Romania at the mouth of the Danube-Sulina River.
"The fins were not damaged, but it is clear that it had been at sea for a long time and was heading for our shores. It is possible that they died a long time ago from fuel oil in the Kerch Strait area, or from the sonar of enemy ships near Novorossiysk, and now they are being washed to the western shores of the Black Sea by currents and sea waves," the scientist noted.
Rusev also said that the body of the dead dolphin was taken to the Tuzla Amazon border for further autopsy and identification of the causes of death within the framework of criminal proceedings under Article 441 "Ecocide".
In addition, according to Rusev, in recent days, employees of the National Nature Park have discovered areas contaminated with fuel oil on the Black Sea coast.
"Within the national park, we have again found a 2 km long sandy area near the Tuzly Estuaries-Black Sea strait, where the sea has thrown out fuel oil of various fractions with a total weight of 1 kg. It was promptly collected. The fuel oil was very soft from the temperature of +30 on the sand," he said.
In his opinion, there is probably fuel oil somewhere else on the coasts of Odesa region, but not all beaches are inspected. In addition, powerful winds and the transfer of sand over the embankment in recent days probably partially cover it and it dissolves in the sand, poisoning sandy biocenoses.
Earlier, in an interview with Intent, Ivan Rusev said that among the war crimes of the Russians, in addition to the abduction of children, the shooting of civilian Ukrainians, and Grad attacks on residential areas, there is also ecocide.
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According to the ecologist, in addition to the multimillion-dollar environmental damage caused by missile strikes and the explosion of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant, there is something that is not visible to the naked eye.
The accident in the Kerch Strait became known on December 15. According to official data, the tankers could have been carrying about 8,000 tons of oil products. Later, environmentalists discovered areas contaminated with fuel oil on the coast near the village of Mykolayivka in the Serhiyivka community of Odesa Oblast. On January 29, utilities in Odesa Oblast 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.
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