Over 1,300 Tons of Contaminated Sand Collected After Kerch Strait Incident

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.

According to Crimea Realii, this data was provided by the Russian Emergencies Ministry.

"In Crimea, 525.4 kilometers of the coast from the Kerch city district to the village of Portovoye will be inspected, a total of 697 tons of contaminated sand and soil will be collected. In Sevastopol, 165 kilometers of the coast between the villages of Laspi and Andriivka are being inspected, 650 tons of pollution have been collected and removed," the media quoted the occupation emergency workers as saying.

The Russian Emergencies Ministry also reported that 18 tons of oil waste had been collected in the Black Sea.

Earlier, Tatiana Beley , director of the occupation's Delphi Scientific and Ecological Center for Dolphin Rescue, said that the number of dead dolphins as a result of the Volgoneft tanker accident and fuel oil spill in the Kerch Strait had reached 84.

Before that, Odesa ecologists discovered that jellyfish poisoned by fuel oil were dying en masse on the coast of Odesa region. According to Ivan Rusev, an employee of the 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.

Олеся Ланцман