‘I’ve 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 beaches — Meduza
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Late last year, two Russian oil tankers collided in the Kerch Strait, leaking thousands of tons of heavy fuel oil into the Black Sea. The incident was disastrous for local wildlife and continues to wreak havoc on southern Russia’s tourism industry. Now, less than a year later, the Caspian Pipeline Consortium has announced that a ruptured hose caused a new spill near the city of Novorossiysk. While the leak is reportedly much smaller than the Kerch Strait one, animal rescue workers have already reported finding injured, oil-covered birds. Here’s what we know about the new spill so far.

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“Based on current [satellite] images, the area [of the slick] already measures 350 square kilometers. In my entire career, I’ve never seen such an extensive film of pollution on the sea. The film remains quite thick for this type of petroleum product. This means that the slick currently contains at least 10 metric tons of petroleum products. It’s located west of Anapa, with a small chance of some reaching the shore north of Anapa. The slick is moving toward Crimea, but for now it’s passing south of the Kerch Strait.” – Sergei Statichny, remote sensing expert at Russia’s Marine Rescue Service, according to pro-Kremlin agency TASS