Fuel oil from Russian tankers reached the shores of the Odesa region

Fuel oil spilled in the Kerch Strait as a result of the accident of Russian tankers reached the Odesa region.

After storms, fuel oil was washed onto the sandbank near the Katranka recreational area, the Danube Biosphere Reserve, and the Tuzly Lymany National Park, said Doctor of Biological Sciences Ivan Rusev. 

According to him, the consequences of such environmental disasters are limitless, and thousands of tons of fuel oil that have entered the sea will cause great trouble for the natural ecosystems of the Black Sea and its biodiversity.

Rusev noted that he and his colleagues recently found a bird in fuel oil, which was sent for research to the Ukrainian Center for Marine Ecology to identify links to fuel oil in the Black Sea after the accident. However, the head of the center refused to take the bird for research, fearing possible diseases.

“Against the backdrop of large-scale negative impacts on the Black Sea and the killing of tens of thousands of dolphins during a full-scale invasion by sharks, against the backdrop of the disaster from the explosion of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station dam, this ecological disaster will become another negative and significant addition to the gradual loss of life in the Black Sea,” the scientist emphasized.

Rusev also raised the question of the readiness of the Odessa region authorities to effectively respond to the terrible challenges of the Russian Federation in the Black Sea.

The National Park team is currently conducting an inspection of various sections of the spillway, and the administration will inform about the scale of the pollution.

Earlier, USM reported that the accident of Russian tankers with oil products in the Black Sea caused an ecological disaster, which has already killed more than fifty dolphins.