{"id":46102,"date":"2025-09-05T22:05:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T22:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/46102\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T22:05:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T22:05:10","slug":"ive-never-seen-such-an-extensive-film-of-pollution-new-oil-spill-dumps-over-10-tons-of-petroleum-in-the-black-sea-killing-birds-and-coating-russian-beac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/46102\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019ve never seen such an\u00a0extensive film of\u00a0pollution\u2019 New oil spill dumps over 10 tons of\u00a0petroleum in\u00a0the Black Sea, killing birds and coating Russian beaches"},"content":{"rendered":"

Late last year, two Russian oil tankers collided in\u00a0the Kerch Strait, leaking thousands of\u00a0tons of\u00a0heavy fuel oil into the Black\u00a0Sea. The incident was disastrous for local wildlife<\/a> and continues to\u00a0wreak havoc on\u00a0southern Russia\u2019s tourism industry<\/a>. Now, less than a\u00a0year later, the Caspian Pipeline Consortium has announced that a\u00a0ruptured hose caused a\u00a0new spill near the city of\u00a0Novorossiysk. While the leak is\u00a0reportedly much smaller than the Kerch Strait one, animal rescue workers have already reported finding injured, oil-covered birds. Here\u2019s what we\u00a0know about the new spill so\u00a0far.<\/p>\n

On\u00a0August 29, the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) reported<\/a> that an\u00a0\u201cemergency situation\u201d had occurred at\u00a0its marine terminal near Novorossiysk, resulting in\u00a0\u201csome amount of\u00a0oil\u201d reaching the surface of\u00a0the Black\u00a0Sea. According to\u00a0the statement, this happened \u201cduring a\u00a0loading operation onto a\u00a0tanker.\u201d The CPC said there were no\u00a0casualties and that the company was conducting \u201coil emulsion collection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shortly after the CPC\u2019s announcement, the Russian state news agency TASS reported<\/a> that the spill occurred after a\u00a0loading hose ruptured while petroleum products were being loaded onto a\u00a0Turkish tanker called the\u00a0T. Semahat. The agency\u2019s source claimed that more than one metric ton of\u00a0petroleum products had spilled. A\u00a0state of\u00a0emergency was declared at\u00a0the terminal. Later that same day, August 29, the press service of\u00a0Russia\u2019s Federal Agency for Sea and Inland Water Transport confirmed<\/a> that during a\u00a0loading operation at\u00a0the port of\u00a0Novorossiysk, a\u00a0\u201cminor oil leak\u201d had been recorded. The agency said that the spill was \u201cquickly contained.\u201d Rosprirodnadzor also reported<\/a> the that the spill had been contained, claiming about 30 cubic meters of\u00a0oil had entered the sea.<\/p>\n

However, by\u00a0the evening of\u00a0August 31, a\u00a0Telegram channel whose members had helped birds affected by\u00a0the December 2024 spill posted<\/a> new photos of\u00a0animals covered in\u00a0oil. \u201cNews outlets say everything is\u00a0contained. But in\u00a0Novorossiysk and Anapa, the sea is\u00a0still covered with a\u00a0film, and we\u2019ve received oil-covered birds\u2026 four black-necked grebes were brought in\u00a0over two days, all covered in\u00a0this stinking liquid. Chemical burns, intoxication, and as\u00a0a\u00a0result, dehydration,\u201d the post read. By\u00a0September 1, volunteers had taken in<\/a> 24 birds, three of\u00a0which had died.<\/p>\n

Sergei Statichny, a\u00a0remote sensing expert who works with Russia\u2019s Marine Rescue Service, told TASS<\/a> on\u00a0September 1 that the area of\u00a0the oil spill in\u00a0the Black Sea was around 350 square kilometers (135 square miles). According to\u00a0his data, at\u00a0least 10 metric tons of\u00a0petroleum products had entered the water.<\/p>\n

Based on\u00a0current [satellite] images, the area [of the slick] already measures 350 square kilometers. In\u00a0my\u00a0entire career, I\u2019ve never seen such an\u00a0extensive film of\u00a0pollution on\u00a0the\u00a0sea. The film remains quite thick for this type of\u00a0petroleum product. This means that the slick currently contains at\u00a0least 10 metric tons of\u00a0petroleum products. It\u2019s located west of\u00a0Anapa, with a\u00a0small chance of\u00a0some reaching the shore north of\u00a0Anapa. The slick is\u00a0moving toward Crimea, but for now it\u2019s passing south of\u00a0the Kerch Strait.<\/p>\n

He\u00a0later stated<\/a> that the main slick had \u201cbroken up,\u201d and that most of\u00a0it\u00a0was now located opposite the Kerch Strait. According to\u00a0him, the total area of\u00a0the petroleum products had \u201cslightly decreased,\u201d although he\u00a0didn\u2019t specify by\u00a0how much.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Igor Vakhrushev, an\u00a0associate professor in\u00a0the Tourism Department at\u00a0the Vernadsky Taurida Academy, said that the \u201cenvironmental damage under these circumstances appears minimal,\u201d since the slick is\u00a0\u201cpassing south of\u00a0the Kerch Strait, avoiding sensitive ecological zones.\u201d \u201cLight fractions don\u2019t settle on\u00a0the seafloor, so\u00a0long-term harm to\u00a0fish and dolphins is\u00a0not expected \u2014 but marine fauna mortality should be\u00a0monitored,\u201d he\u00a0noted.<\/p>\n

At\u00a0the same time, environmentalist Igor Shkradyuk told the independent outlet Agentstvo<\/a> that within 24 hours of\u00a0the spill, fragments of\u00a0oil began washing up\u00a0on\u00a0the coast of\u00a0Krasnodar Krai. A\u00a0photographer from Anapa, Yuri Ozarovsky, posted photos and videos of\u00a0the oil washing ashore at\u00a0one of\u00a0the beaches.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, the shore smells of\u00a0petroleum products \u2014 people say it\u00a0smells like diesel. But unlike a\u00a0fuel oil spill, there\u2019s no\u00a0black layer along the coast. It\u2019s barely noticeable,\u201d Shkradyuk said.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian Navy spokesperson Dmytro Pletenchuk confirmed<\/a> to\u00a0journalists that a\u00a0spill had occurred in\u00a0the Black\u00a0Sea. He\u00a0said oil or\u00a0unidentified petroleum products had \u201cspilled over a\u00a0fairly large area\u201d and that the incident occurred in\u00a0an\u00a0area controlled by\u00a0Russia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Late last year, two Russian oil tankers collided in\u00a0the Kerch Strait, leaking thousands of\u00a0tons of\u00a0heavy fuel oil into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[269],"tags":[18,440,19,17,133,1175,1170,1173,1162,1155,1167,1157,1168,1174,1163,1151,1158,1152,1160,1161,1153,1156,1154,1172,1166,1159,1171,1169,1165,1164],"class_list":{"0":"post-46102","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-environment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-1175","14":"tag-1170","15":"tag-1173","16":"tag-1162","17":"tag-1155","18":"tag-1167","19":"tag-1157","20":"tag-1168","21":"tag-1174","22":"tag-1163","23":"tag-1151","24":"tag-1158","25":"tag-1152","26":"tag-1160","27":"tag-1161","28":"tag-1153","29":"tag-1156","30":"tag-1154","31":"tag-1172","32":"tag-1166","33":"tag-1159","34":"tag-1171","35":"tag-1169","36":"tag-1165","37":"tag-1164"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}