Oil spill near Russia caused environmental disaster

The third large-scale oil spill of the year has been recorded in the Black Sea, which has already caused a mass death of birds.

This is reported by Ivan Rusev, an ecologist of the Tuzli Estuaries National Park.

The pollution is linked to damage to oil infrastructure near Novorossiysk, Russia. According to Rusev, a pipeline, oil transshipment berths and facilities associated with the so-called “shadow fleet” were hit in the area a few days ago.

As a result, thousands of tons of oil entered the Black Sea. In addition, environmentalists recorded an additional leak in the Temryuk district of the Krasnodar Territory – palm oil entered the sea.

The combination of different types of pollution has significantly worsened the situation for marine ecosystems.

Within days of the incidents, thousands of birds began dying or washing up on the coast covered in oil. The most commonly affected birds are terns and loons, which feed in coastal areas and are sensitive to water pollution.

According to ecologists, over a hundred thousand birds may have died in the sea due to such recent pollution incidents. Some of them were washed ashore hundreds of kilometers away – all the way to the Tuzli Estuaries National Park.

There are rehabilitation centers on the coast where specialists are trying to save the affected birds. However, their survival rate remains low.

Environmentalists warn that such accidents will have long-term consequences for the entire Black Sea. Pollution with oil products destroys the food base, affects water quality and biodiversity, which in the long term may affect both fishing and the condition of the coast.

It was previously reported that new fuel oil leaks from Russian tankers that sank in December have been recorded in the Kerch Strait.

As a reminder, two Russian tankers, Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239, sank in the Black Sea near the Kerch Strait . One of the vessels broke in half.