The massive death of Red Book seahorses on the coast of Odesa has prompted accusations of an attempt to cover up the true causes of the environmental disaster. The oil spill and the inaction of officials are being presented as the consequences of "bad weather".
This was reported by environmentalist Vladislav Balinsky.
The report of the State Ecological Inspectorate of the Southwestern District on the mass death of seahorses (Hippocampus guttulatus) listed in the Red Book of Ukraine has been criticized by the ecologist. According to Balinsky, the document is not the result of scientific analysis, but an attempt to formally justify the environmental disaster and absolve officials of responsibility.
While representatives of the EIA call the oil spilled at sea a "safe food product," the environmental services, according to the expert, are adjusting the conclusions to a convenient version of "unfavorable weather conditions."
1. Samples from the surface - for the bottom tragedy
The inspection declared the absence of chemical contamination based on the analysis of water samples taken from the sea surface. According to the ecologist, this approach is fundamentally flawed.
In winter, seahorses stay in a state of physiological peat at depths of 10-15 meters, attaching themselves to mussels on rocky ridges. The pollutant in the form of polymerized oil, mixing with silt, forms lipid-mineral aggregates with a higher density than seawater. They inevitably sink to the bottom instead of remaining on the surface.
According to experts, searching for traces of oil in the upper layers of water after weeks of settling, has no scientific value and looks like a deliberate imitation of research.
2. The wrong indicators were studied in the wrong place
The inspection report contains a standard list of indicators typical for the analysis of domestic wastewater - iron, ammonium nitrogen, nitrates. At the same time, these data do not allow us to identify the toxic effects of lipid pollution.
The ecologist drew attention to the lack of key studies:
- histological analysis of the gills of dead skates;
- chromatographic analysis of tissues for the content of polymerized lipids;
- a study of Mediterranean mussels, which are natural filterers and accumulate traces of pollution.
3. Torpor is a defense, not a cause of death
The official version is that the low water temperature allegedly reduced the mobility of the skates, which is why they broke away from the substrate. Ecologists call this a gross misunderstanding of the physiology of needlefish.
The state of torpor is a hypometabolic hibernation in which the skate's tail works as a passive biological "lock". A healthy individual cannot be torn away from the substrate only because of the cold - this mechanism is evolutionarily adapted to wintering at a temperature of +2...+5 °C for months.
The temperatures in January 2026 were within the normal range for winter dormancy, and therefore could not have caused massive seahorse mortality. If temperature were the decisive factor, such strandings would occur after every winter storm.
4. The storm carried the bodies, but did not cause the deaths
The version of the storm as the main cause of death also does not stand up to criticism. Neither mussels nor seagrasses, to which seahorses usually attach themselves, were found on the shore.
If the current had been strong enough to break the muscle lock of a live seahorse's tail, it would have torn off the substrate itself. The absence of such remains suggests that the animals were dead or paralyzed before the storm, probably as a result of prolonged toxic exposure and gill damage.
5. Possible scenario of events
According to the ecologist's hypothesis, in December 2025, an oil spill occurred, which subsequently polymerized and settled to the bottom. The lipid aggregates accumulated in benthic traps along rocky ridges, places of biota concentration. Over the course of several weeks, gill damage, hypoxia, and loss of muscle tone occurred. On January 26, the bottom current only brought the already non-viable seahorses to the shore.
The ecologist noted that the imitation of the investigation is related to the fear of responsibility for inaction after the December oil spill. He insists on conducting a full-fledged toxicological examination of benthic organisms and refusing to try to blame the environmental disaster on the weather.
Recently, the State Environmental Inspectorate of the Southwestern District stated that toxic water pollution was virtually ruled out. The most likely cause of the deaths, experts say, is a powerful southeast storm that preceded the incident.
Анна Бальчінос
