Oil spill killing dolphins
2007-11-16 09:06
Moscow - A fuel oil spill from a Russian
tanker into the Black Sea is killing dolphins and the nearby Sea
of Azov may suffer heavy pollution if urgent measures are not
taken, Russia's environment watchdog said on Thursday.
A storm on Sunday broke up the tanker and sank at least four
freighters while crippling other vessels in the narrow Kerch
Strait between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Four seamen
were drowned and four others are missing.
Oleg Mitvol, deputy head of state environment watchdog
Rosprirodnadzor, said the oil had polluted a 50km
long stretch of Black Sea coastline and rescue workers would
have to remove 10 000 tons of oily sludge from the shore.
Mitvol said around 1 500 tons of fuel oil was still afloat
in the water, killing thousands of birds and fish.
"Unfortunately, not only fish are affected, but sea mammals
as well - we have documented cases of deaths of dolphins," he told a news conference.
"The fact that dolphins and birds listed in Russia's Red
Book (of endangered species) are dying is very sad indeed."
Environmentalists say the Black Sea dolphin is on the verge
of extinction. The UN Environment Programme has declared 2007
the Year of the Dolphin.
Mitvol said environmental experts from Belgium, Brazil and
the United States would arrive in the area in the next few days.
"Volunteers from all across Russia are heading there, as
well as groups from Greenpeace and WWF," he said.
Old rows worsen crisis
The Kerch Strait separates the port of Kerch on Ukraine's
Crimea Peninsula from Russia.
Mitvol hit out at the head of the port, saying he had
prevented storm-battered ships from using a channel alongside
the port to reach calmer waters.
Mitvol also said that Ukrainian environmental inspectors had
tried on Wednesday to stop Russian clean-up workers who were
pumping the remaining oil out of the tanks of the
partially-sunken tanker.
He said Ukrainian authorities were resisting a Russian
proposal to contain the oil spill by building a dam across one
of the channels in the Kerch Strait.
The area has been the subject of a territorial dispute
between Russia and Ukraine. The two have had fraught relations
since a 2004 bloodless revolution brought a Western-leaning
president to power in Kiev.
Russia's attempts to build a breakwater stretching from its
southern Krasnodar Region to Tuzla sparked a fierce territorial
dispute between Moscow and Kiev four years ago. The row has not
yet been resolved.
"Independence issues do not matter at a time of an
ecological crisis. We share one planet," said Mitvol.