Fuel oil from Russian tankers found again off the coast of Odesa region

A new area contaminated with fuel oil from Russian tankers that crashed in the Kerch Strait has been found on the coast of the Odesa region.

The fuel oil was found on the coast of the Tuzlivski Lymany National Park in the Odesa region, said Ivan Rusev, head of the national park’s research department.

According to him, the contamination was discovered on a sandbank, where the sea threw up fuel oil fractions with a diameter of 5 mm. A small amount of fuel oil (about 50 grams) was promptly collected.

Rusev noted that the fuel oil was very soft due to the high temperature of the sand and air. According to the ecologist, strong winds and the movement of sand along the sandbank in recent days are likely covering it and the oil product is dissolving in the sand and poisoning the sand biocenoses.

The main part of the fuel oil that could have reached the North-Western Black Sea Region from the accident site on December 15, 2024, is already dissolving and “integrating” into the food chains of aquatic organisms of the marine ecosystem with warming, Rusev added.

Earlier, USM reported that kilograms of fuel oil that washed ashore after the accident of Russian tankers in the Kerch Strait were collected in the Odesa region.

Also on January 27, the head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration Oleh Kiper reported that the administration held an extraordinary meeting of the commission on TEB and emergency issues. The main issue is preventing an ecological disaster in the Black Sea.

Later, it became known that the port of Odesa will purchase boom fences to localize emergency pollution in the open sea along the coast.