Following a severe storm in the Black Sea, two tankers sustained significant damage, resulting in an oil spill that has affected “tens of kilometers” of the Russian coastline. Additionally, a third tanker has issued a distress signal, but its hull remains intact and there are no reports of oil spillage or injuries to the crew, according to AJOT.
State Of Emergency
Two aged oil tankers experienced separate incidents in the Kerch Strait. The first vessel split in two, while the second ran aground. These vessels were carrying a significant amount of oil products, raising concerns about a potential major environmental disaster.
Fuel oil has been detected along the coast between Temryuk and Anapa, indicating that oil products have washed ashore over a considerable distance. A state of emergency has been declared in several settlements due to the oil spill on the shoreline.
Visual evidence, such as a video from Zvezda TV, shows the presence of a black, oil-like substance and tarry stains along the coast, highlighting the extent of the environmental impact.
TASS news agency, citing a scientist, said the nearby Kerch Strait, which separates Russia’s Krasnodar region from the Crimean peninsula that Moscow annexed from Crimea in 2014, is an important area for migrating dolphins and other sea mammals.
“You can say they hit a key place,” Dmitry Glazov of the Institute of Ecology and Evolution was quoted as saying.
A video broadcast by state TV channel Vesti showed several birds covered with oil flapping their wings and struggling to fly. Russia’s Natural Resources and Ecology Ministry said on Monday that fuel oil had leaked into the sea, but the scale of the spillage was still not clear. Natural Resources and Ecology Minister Alexander Kozlov said some of the fuel oil could have sunk to the seabed due to cold weather.
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Source: AJOT
