One month on, Russian authorities fail to stop oil leak from sunken tanker in Black Sea
16 January 2025 - On December 15, 2024, two Russian tankers crashed in the Kerch Strait resulting in an oil spill into the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. A month later, the amount of mazut – a type of low-quality heavy fuel oil - in the sea is estimated at between 2400 and 5000 tonnes, and it still continues to spill.
As for now, fuel oil contamination is observed from Novorossiysk in the Krasnodar region of Russia to Ozero Donuzlav in the western coast of occupied Crimea. Mazut spills have also been detected on the coast of the Azov Sea, near occupied Berdyansk and Kyrylivka. There are various estimates of the spill’s size based on remote sensing data analysis. According to them, it is estimated that the minimum spill area could be up to 400 km2 on the water surface and shoreline, and the maximum area of pollution may reach 1000 km2.
The environmental crisis from the oil spill demands urgent action, yet, Russian authorities delayed cleanup and have still not taken adequate measures. A federal state of emergency was only declared 12 days after the incident.
The impact of the ecological disaster could persist for decades. Mazut is a heavy fuel oil and most of the substance remains in the deep sea. As fuel oil sinks to the bottom, it accumulates in filter-feeding organisms (for example, mussels, and other mollusks), poisons benthic organisms (such as crustaceans and algae) and fish that feed on these benthic organisms (e.g., gobies), and then affects higher levels of the food chain through poisoning with harmful organic compounds and heavy metals. The experience of other oil spills suggests possible mass extinctions of benthic fauna, fish, birds and marine mammals, as well as cases where the environment remained toxic for up to 30 years.
There have already been reports about 32 cetaceans (mostly harbor porpoise) whose deaths are most likely related to the oil spill. This is an unusually high number for this season and the death toll may be rising.
Volunteers have rescued more than 5600 birds covered in mazut, while 1355 birds died due to contamination. The birds are particularly suffering as their feathers are damaged by the pollution, which affects their ability to fly and provide thermal insulation. During attempts to clean the feathers, fuel oil enters the bird’s digestive system, causing poisoning. Given that after the 2007 accident, 12,000-30,000 dead birds were recorded over a much smaller area, the actual numbers may be much higher today.
“A similar accident already happened on this sea route in 2007 but the Russian authorities have failed to take any measures to ensure safe transportation since then and show complete indifference to the consequences of their actions. The current Russian regime is the main beneficiary of the oil trade. It depends on fossil fuels and uses this money to sponsor war. But it is the people, animals and nature that pay the price”, comments Anna Jerzak, expert of Greenpeace in Central and Eastern Europe.
The catastrophe could have been avoided if lessons had been learnt from the 2007 accident and outdated river tankers had been removed from sea use. Yet today, Russia continues to operate aging tankers also in its shadow fleet in the Baltic Sea to transport oil, defying sanctions. The shadow fleet helps fund the war against Ukraine and poses a similar devastating disaster in European waters. The EU must act swiftly to add the shadow fleet to its sanctions list.
Photo credit: Ivan Rusev