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Oil Spill Near Black Sea Causes 'Ecological Catastrophe'
By Associated Press
November 13, 2007


PORT KAVKAZ, Russia — More than 30,000 birds and countless fish have been killed in an "ecological catastrophe" wrought by thousands of tons of oil from a tanker that broke apart in a heavy storm near the Black Sea, the governor of the region said yesterday.

Birds weighed down by thick coatings of the fuel oil hopped weakly along the shore or sat helplessly in the sand. Workers with pitchforks and shovels started the backbreaking labor of gathering up vast clumps of oil mixed with sand and seaweed.

The tanker was one of up to 10 ships that sank or ran aground in the storm Sunday in the strait connecting the Black and Azov Seas. The bodies of three sailors from a freighter that also broke apart washed up on shore yesterday, and rescuers were looking for five missing crewmen, an Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman, Sergei Kozhemyaka, said.

The spill from the oil tanker was seen as potentially the worst environmental disaster in the region in recent years. It prompted criticism that many Russian tankers aren't seaworthy.

"Some 30,000 birds have died, and it's not possible to count how many fish. The damages are so great that it's hard to assess. It can be equated with an ecological catastrophe," Alexander Tkachev, the governor of the Krasnodar region, said, according to the Interfax news agency. Another official, Sergei Zaitsev, was quoted as saying that much of the oil still on the water's surface could congeal in the wintry temperatures, forming globs that drop to the seabed.

President Putin of Russia ordered Prime Minister Zubkov to fly to the region to assess the disaster and clean-up efforts.

 

PORT KAVKAZ, Russia, Nov 13, 2007 (AFP)
Hundreds of Russian soldiers were deployed on Tuesday to clean up a 2,000-tonne oil spill in environmentally-sensitive waters caused by a fierce Black Sea storm that wrecked five ships.


Officials warned of "an environmental catastrophe" as high winds and heavy rain continued to lash Russia's southern coastline, with local radio reports saying gales could reach 144 kilometres (90 miles) per hour.

On the Tuzla Spit, near the place where waves smashed an oil tanker in half on Sunday, an AFP reporter saw around 200 emergency workers, soldiers and Cossacks shovelling sand and seaweed caked with fuel oil into some 20 trucks.

"We're clearing up the shore and the water, and we're pumping oil out from a tanker damaged in the storm," Oleg Mitvol, deputy head of the Russian government's environmental monitoring agency, told AFP by telephone.

"If that 2,000-tonne spill moves further into the Sea of Azov, there will be serious environmental consequences. It has a fragile ecosystem," said Mitvol, who arrived in the affected area on Monday.

The Kerch Strait where the spill occurred is a waterway separating the Black Sea from the Sea of Azov that is an important migration route for birds and home to the Black Sea porpoise.

The picturesque area, which is dotted with Cossack villages and lagoons, is renowned for its wine and is popular among Russian tourists for its wildlife, beaches and healing mud baths.

Mitvol said a total of 730 workers had been mobilised to clear up the spill, including 500 soldiers. He also said Russian officials would try and contain the slick with booms.

Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov was due to arrive later Tuesday at the crisis centre in Port Kavkaz, a commercial hub some 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) south of Moscow that was the area worst affected by the high winds.

Fears were also growing over the fate of five sailors still missing in Russian waters and 15 more in Ukrainian waters after Sunday's storm battered the north-eastern corner of the Black Sea.

The bodies of three sailors, still in life jackets, were washed ashore on Monday on the Tuzla Spit, near the disputed maritime border between Russia and ex-Soviet Ukraine.

Thirty-six other crew members were rescued from the shipwrecks on Sunday.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych was expected to visit the Russian side of the Kerch Strait on Tuesday as Ukrainian authorities helped rescue efforts, Ukrainian officials said.

On Monday, thick fuel oil deposits could be seen clogging the beaches around Port Kavkaz. Oil-soaked cormorants struggled in the polluted water as rescue workers shovelled away the oil.

Regional governor Alexander Tkachyov said 30,000 birds had died.

Three Russian ships laden with sulphur sank in or near Port Kavkaz on Sunday. Five-metre high waves broke apart another oil tanker, the Volgoneft-139, on Sunday, causing the spill.

A second tanker, the Volgoneft-123, suffered two cracks in its hull but officials said the leak had been insignificant. The fuel oil from the second tanker was being pumped out of the ship on Tuesday.

"I've never seen weather like this," said a cafe owner in Port Kavkaz, who declined to be named, as the high winds lashed her cafe and cars queued outside for a passenger ferry to Ukraine.

"There aren't going to be any holiday-makers next year because of this. People around here live mainly off that," she said.


Bodies, oil slicks wash up from Black Sea storm
Posted Tue Nov 13, 2007 6:44am AEDT
Updated Tue Nov 13, 2007 6:49am AEDT

Disaster: A bird stained with fuel oil sits on the shore near Russia's southern port of Kavkaz (Reuters: Alexander Natruskin)

The bodies of three sailors have washed ashore after a ferocious Black Sea storm which wrecked five ships, spilling 2,000 tonnes of oil in the environmentally sensitive waters, Russian officials said.

The bodies, still in life jackets, were found near the island of Tuzla in the north-eastern end of the Black Sea, near the maritime border between Russia and Ukraine, the Emergency Situations Ministry said in a statement.

Thick fuel oil deposits clogged beaches around Port Kavkaz, a commercial hub some 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) south of Moscow. Oil-soaked seabirds struggled in the polluted water and rescue workers shovelled away the oil.

"We've collected 10 truckloads of fuel oil today," said one Russian Emergency Situations Ministry worker, clearing a patch of coastline under heavy rain and high winds in a team with seven other men.

"It's in small patches everywhere," he said.

As environmentalists scrambled to assess the damage, fears grew for 20 missing mariners - five in the area of Port Kavkaz and 15 about 300 kilometres to the west, whose cargo ship sank near the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol.

Russian officials issued a new storm warning overnight as dark clouds gathered overhead and winds picked up again in the region, delaying efforts to limit the oil spill.

President Vladimir Putin sent Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov to the area.

After meeting rescue workers, the deputy head of Russia's environmental monitoring agency told AFP in Port Kavkaz that everything would be done to minimise the environmental damages.

"Booms and chemical agents will be used to minimise the spill. Soldiers and emergency workers will be deployed on Tuesday to clean up the beaches," said Oleg Mitvol, who flew to the crisis area on Monday.

He said the fuel oil spilled in the area totalled "around 2,000 tonnes."

'Serious accident'
Mitvol earlier warned of a "serious environmental accident" that could take years to repair.

At the heart of the damage was the stricken tanker, Volgoneft-139, which broke in two on Sunday in five-metre waves, spilling 1,300 tonnes of oil, officials said earlier.

About 3,000 tonnes of fuel oil remained inside the wreckage of the ship. Three sulphur-laden cargo ships sank near the port, though officials said the containers were sealed and would not present an environmental risk.

The oil spill occurred in the Kerch Strait, an environmentally sensitive waterway connecting the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov that is an important migration route for bids and also home to the Black Sea porpoise.

"I'm very worried about the environment. A lot of tourists come here, we've got good fish and the birds are going to die," said a Port Kavkaz official, who declined to be named.

"I've been working in ports in this area since 1995 and this is the first time I've seen something on this scale. The ships weren't meant for these kinds of waves. They shouldn't have gone out.

"We haven't seen the full scale of this, the weather has to clear," he added.

During the storm, rescue services plucked 36 crew members from stricken vessels and 40 vessels were evacuated from Port Kavkaz. Two more cargo ships ran aground near Kabardinka, a town on Russia's Black Sea coast further south.

The oil spill from the Volgoneft-139 was smaller than that caused in November 2002 when the Liberian oil tanker Prestige sank off Spain, spewing 64,000 tonnes of fuel oil into the water and fouling the Atlantic coastline.

However, environmentalists said that the real impact of pollution varies from case to case and does not necessarily depend on how much fuel was spilled, with factors such as the speed of rescue efforts also playing a crucial role.

The Volgoneft-139 was carrying fuel oil from the southern Russian city of Samara on the Volga River to an oil terminal in Ukraine, following a busy commercial route for Russia-Ukraine commerce.

The Black Sea is bordered by Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine, with one narrow outlet through the Bosphorus Strait into Turkey's Marmara Sea and on into the Mediterranean.

Calmer Seas Allow Shipwreck Rescue Efforts

Rescue operations have begun after four ships and an oil tanker sank in a storm near the Black Sea on Sunday. At least eight men are still missing and an environmental disaster seems inevitable.

Rescue operations have begun after a storm sank at least four freighters and a small oil tanker on Sunday on the Sea of Avoz, near the Black Sea. By Monday morning the northern mouth of the Black Sea was finally calm enough for rescue helicopters to take off and begin their search.

While over 20 seamen have been rescued, Russia's Emergency Ministry reported that at least eight are still missing.



The Volganeft-139 oil tanker was at anchor off the Ukranian port of Kerch when winds of 108 km/h (67 mph) and waves reaching 5 meters (16 feet), sent it to the depths of the Kerch Strait on Sunday. Within a few hours, the tanker's 13-member crew had been rescued.
On Monday morning rescuers recovered three bodies from another shipwreck near the Tuzla Spit, a piece of land which juts out of the Russian coast toward the Ukrainian Crimea.
An environmental catastrophe seems unavoidable. Up to 1,300 metric tons of fuel oil have leaked into the Kerch Strait which passes between the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. At least two of the other ships that sank were transporting potentially hazardous cargo, including 2,000 tons of sulphur. The third was carrying scrap metal. And a second oil tanker, while still afloat, has developed cracks in its hull.

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Russian environmentalist Vladimir Sivyak told the BBC that the sinking of the Volganeft-139 alone was a "very serious environmental disaster." He added that the heavy oil which has already sunk into the seabed will take years to clean up. According to a local prosecutor, the Volganeft-139 was designed in the Soviet era for transport on rivers and was not built to sustain heavy weather.
The shore near the port of Kavkaz is already showing signs of things to come. Large oil puddles are floating on the surface and birds are covered in the slick. The area lies on the migration route of red- and black-throated Siberian diver birds, traveling between central Siberia and the Black Sea.
The disaster, however, pales in comparison with the 64,000 ton oil tanker that sank off the coast of Spain in 2002, which caused extensive damage to French, Spanish and Portugese beaches in the region.
nmb/reuters
Greenpeace alarmed by oil spill, Russia MP highlights other risks
15:14 | 12/ 11/ 2007


MOSCOW, November 12 (RIA Novosti) -
Greenpeace warned that Sunday's fuel oil spill between the Black and Azov Seas could destroy rare fauna, but a Russian lawmaker said the damage was no worse than everyday industrial pollution.

A storm in the Kerch Strait in between Russia and Ukraine's Crimean peninsula sank four ships and an oil tanker. At least three sailors died, and eight are still missing. The incident resulted in 1,300 metric tons of fuel oil and 6,800 tons of sulfur spilling into the sea.

"As a result of the oil spill into the sea, heavy elements of fuel oil will settle on the seabed and cause hydrocarbons to permeate the Sea of Azov," said Vladimir Chuprov, head of the energy department at Greenpeace, Russia. "This will lead to a shortage of oxygen in the water, and the unique fauna will suffer greatly."

Pyotr Romanov, a first deputy chairman of the environmental committee in the lower house of Russia's parliament, acknowledged that severe damage would be caused, but said that everyday industrial and car pollution was more detrimental to the environment than the oil spill.

"Unforeseen environmental pollution such as this is of course highly undesirable, but it is not as catastrophic as everyday pollution of the environment through non-compliance with production rules... and the uncontrolled pollution of the atmosphere by the release of gases by cars," he said.

Greenpeace's Chuprov said the incident demonstrated that fuel transportation by sea was unreliable. "It would be better to give up [sea] transit of all forms of fuel because we have no safe technical means for this," he said.

Greenpeace said the sulfur spill posed a lesser threat than the fuel oil. Alexei Kiselyov, coordinator of the environmental group's toxic substances division, said the sulfur had been transported in containers and could be easily lifted from the seabed.

"Even if one of the containers bursts, it will not be particularly dangerous because there is nothing sulfur can react with in water," he said.

However, Sergei Baranovsky, an academician and president of Green Cross Russia, said sulfur was far more harmful to the environment than even the fuel oil spill.

Earlier on Monday, Oleg Mitvol, deputy head of the Russian environmental regulator, described the incident in the Kerch Strait as a grave environmental catastrophe and said it would take more than a month to clean up the water.






http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7092071.stm
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20071113/87878598.html
http://www.fishupdate.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/9163/WWF:
_Oil_spill_threatens_Black_Sea_environment.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/13/world/europe/13russia.html
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,516819,00.html
http://www.nysun.com/article/66321

 

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