Odesa Commission Addresses Coastal Pollution After Kerch Strait Disaster

On March 7, a meeting of the city commission on technogenic and environmental safety and emergencies was held in Odesa to discuss the issue of coastal pollution by oil residues.

According to the Odesa City Council, experts link the incident to the environmental disaster that occurred on December 15 in the Kerch Strait. Then, due to the sinking of Russian oil tankers, more than 4,000 tons of fuel oil got into the Black Sea.

Photo: Gennady Trukhanov/Telegram.

The mayor's office assured that the contaminated areas were cleaned up by employees of the Uzhberezhzhia utility company together with business representatives. Additionally, divers examined the sea area, but found no residual fuel oil in the water.

The Commission approved preventive measures in case of possible re-contamination. The Commission also approved a set of preparations for the summer season, including

• setting up rescue posts,
• providing shelters near the beaches,
• installation of a public address system.

Particular attention was paid to fire safety issues, namely, the decision was made to install additional hydrants and arrange fire reservoirs.

The accident in the Kerch Strait became known on December 15. The shipwreck occurred near Cape Panagia in the Temryuksky district of Krasnodar Territory, 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.

Later, a concentrated oil slick was spotted in the Sea of Azov, which as of January 11, 2025, was located just 10 kilometers south of the tip of the Berdiansk Spit, had an approximate area of 300 square kilometers and stretched for almost 100 kilometers along the Bilosaray Bay.

Later, it became known that the number of dolphins killed as a result of the invaders' tanker accident and fuel oil spill in the Kerch Strait reached 84.

Odesa ecologists also discovered that jellyfish poisoned by fuel oil are dying en masse on the coast of Odesa region. According to Ivan Rusev, an employee of theTuzly Estuaries National Nature Park, there were 2-3 jellyfish per meter on the sand along 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 consume nanofractions of oil products along with plankton, which could have serious environmental consequences.

Ірина Глухова