Oil spill in the Kerch Strait kills more than 30 dolphins
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Recently, two Russian tankers were involved in an accident in the Kerch Strait. The fuel oil spill killed at least 32 dolphins.
This is reported by AP.
Fuel oil spill in the Kerch Strait
It is reported that after the accident, experts found 61 dead cetaceans in the Kerch Strait, 32 of which were dolphins that died after December 15. Experts noted that their deaths were related to the fuel oil spill.
"We receive information about the deaths of new dolphins almost daily, keep records, and regularly submit data to government agencies. For this time of year (outside of the calving season), this number of deaths is uncharacteristically high," the Russian Dolphin Rescue and Research Center Delfacenter said.
The article also said that judging by the condition of the bodies, most of the dolphins probably died in the first ten days after the disaster. And now they continue to be carried away by the sea. Most of them are Azov seals, which have always been the most vulnerable cetaceans.
At the same time, the Delfacenter added that there have been no live dolphin releases so far. However, experts expect the number of affected cetaceans to increase in the coming months.
What preceded it
On December 15, two Russian tankers, Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239, were damaged near the Kerch Strait in the Black Sea due to a powerful storm. Both were built in the 1980s.
According to environmentalist Vladyslav Balinskyi, the accident could have released 8,600 tons of fuel oil into the sea. The expert said in a commentary to the USI publication that the slick could reach the coast of Odesa region in the summer.
Two days later, a Russian oil tanker sank in the Kerch Strait near the port of Kavkaz.
And on December 27, a fourth Russian tanker crashed in the Black Sea. This vessel was part of Russia's so-called "shadow fleet" and was transporting sanctioned oil.
As a reminder, the head of the All-Ukrainian Ecological League, Tetyana Tymochko, said that Russia is hiding the true amount of oil products leaked into the Black Sea. So far, hundreds of thousands of living organisms have been affected by the accident.
Experts warn that the recent accident with Russian tankers could turn the Black Sea into an oil dump and its coastline into an environmental disaster zone.
