Emergency workers tried to save the polluted birds, but environmentalists say 90 percent of them died due to mishandling.
After the accident of two Russian oil tankers in the Kerch Strait in December, the number of dead dolphins in this area also increased. The Russian environmental group Delfa wrote this in a post on the Telegram social network on Sunday. TASR informs about it according to the DPA agency.
“We receive new information about dead dolphins practically every day, we keep statistics and regularly submit them to state authorities,” Delfa wrote. In the last few days, 32 bodies of dead dolphins have been found, and their number for this time of year is “uncharacteristically high.”
The Russian tankers Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239 sank on December 15 during a storm in the Kerch Strait, which connects the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. According to Russian officials, they were transporting 9,200 tons of heating oil. More precise figures on the amount that has leaked into the sea vary. Russian President Vladimir Putin described the incident as an “ecological disaster”.
Oil spills have already polluted dozens of kilometers of beaches, and the seaside resort of Anapa in the Krasnodar region is particularly affected. The pollution also affected the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Moscow, including the cities of Sevastopol and Yevpatoriya.
Thousands of volunteers have since been working to clean up the beaches, but new oil slicks keep appearing. According to environmentalists, oil pollution will spread even more in the spring when the water temperature rises.
Emergency workers tried to save the polluted birds, but environmentalists say 90 percent of them died due to mishandling. Russian authorities rejected this as a “false” claim, saying the proportion of animals that died was less than 10 percent.
Ukraine called the oil spill “the largest in the Black Sea region in the 21st century” and accused Moscow of using ships unsuitable for harsh winter conditions. The Volgoneft tankers are more than 50 years old and were primarily intended for the canals and navigable rivers of European Russia. For short distances they could only be used at sea under favorable conditions.
