Dolphins and birds die in Russian tanker accident in Black Sea

Fuel oil, which after the accident is leaking from the Russian tankers “Volgoneft 212” and “Volgoneft 239”, will lead to the death of marine life – fish, dolphins and waterfowl.

This was stated by the head of the All-Ukrainian Ecological League Tetyana Tymochko on the air of Kyiv 24.

According to her, marine life – dolphins, waterfowl, etc. – is primarily killed by oil products.

“There are facts of tankers being destroyed and these tankers were transporting oil products. The spill of oil and other oil products, in particular fuel oil, which is already a confirmed fact by the Russian Federation, causes negative consequences for the environment if they enter sea water. Especially in the coastal zone,” said Tetyana Tymochko.

The head of the All-Ukrainian Ecological League emphasized that birds are affected because the fuel oil, the film covering their feathers, does not allow them to rise into the air and they die in the sea or on the shore.

In turn, Doctor of Biological Sciences Ivan Rusev added that this ecological disaster will be another negative and significant impact on the gradual death of life in the Black Sea.

“The fuel oil leak will have catastrophic consequences for a large part of the marine ecosystem and all living organisms due to the toxic effects of petroleum products,” writes Ivan Rusev.

He also recalled that Ukraine already has experience of the slow reaction of international institutions to the death of dolphins from the actions of the Russian Federation. According to him, for two years now the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine has not been able to obtain the results of laboratory tests of samples from dolphins in Italy and Germany that died during the war and were thrown onto the shores of the Black Sea.

Recall, on December 15, two Russian tankers sank in the Kerch Strait. First, the tanker “Volgoneft-212”, which was carrying 4 tons of oil, suffered an accident. An hour later, a storm hit the “Volgoneft-239”.

The cause of the accident was a strong storm. One of the tankers was cut almost in half by the waves. As a result of the accidents, 4,300 tons of fuel oil and other petroleum products could have spilled into the sea.