In Odesa region, employees of the Tuzly Estuaries National Nature Park have again discovered fuel oil fractions on the sandy embankment. They got into the Black Sea after the accident of Russian tankers on December 15, 2024.
This was reported by Ivan Rusev, head of the research department of this environmental institution, on Facebook.
He said that the fractions are small – 5 mm in diameter. In general, there is not much fuel oil – about 50 grams. Employees of the national park promptly collected it. According to the ecologist, the fuel oil was very soft due to the temperature of +28°C on the sand.
The expert assumes that there is fuel oil in other places on the coasts of Odesa region, but it is not detected because not all beaches are inspected.
“In addition, powerful winds and the transfer of sand over the shoreline in recent days probably cover it, and it dissolves in the sand, poisoning sandy biocenoses,” Rusev said.
The scientist said that most of the fuel oil that could have reached the Northwest Black Sea from the accident site last December is already dissolving with warming and is being “embedded” in the food chains of marine ecosystem aquatic life.
No fuel oil is currently visible in the national park on the coast, but the ecologist warned that there is no guarantee that the sea will not throw it ashore again tomorrow, as millions of small fractions rise from the seabed and drift in the waters of the northwestern Black Sea.
A few days before the Russian tanker accident, Ivan Rusev reported that the water conditions in the Black Sea and adjacent estuaries were gradually improving.
