Fuel oil spilled out of two tankers nearly three weeks ago in the Kerch Strait, about 250 kilometres from Sevastopol on the southwest of the occupied Crimean Peninsula.
At least 32 dolphins have died since fuel oil spilled out of two stricken tankers three weeks ago in the Kerch Strait which separates the Crimean Peninsula from Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, an animal rescue group has said.
Russia’s Delfa Dolphin Rescue and Research Centre said the deaths are “most likely related to the fuel oil spill.”
The centre said on the messaging app Telegram that a total of 61 dead cetaceans, an order of aquatic mammals that includes whales and dolphins, had been recorded since the emergency, but the condition of the bodies suggested that the 29 others had died before the spill.
“Judging by the condition of the bodies, most likely the majority of these cetaceans died in the first 10 days after the disaster. And now the sea continues to wash them up,” the centre wrote, noting that most of the dead dolphins were from the endangered Azov species.
That comes after Russia-appointed officials in Crimea declared a regional emergency on Saturday after oil was detected on the shores of Sevastopol.
Fuel oil spilled out of two tankers nearly three weeks ago in the Kerch Strait, about 250 kilometres from Sevastopol on the southwest of the peninsula.
“Today a regional emergency regime has been declared in Sevastopol,” regional Governor Mikhail Razvozhaev wrote on Telegram.
Oil was found on four beaches in the region and was “promptly eliminated” by local authorities working together with volunteers, Razvozhaev said.
Authorities in Russia’s southern Krasnodar announced a region-wide emergency last week, as the fuel oil continued washing up on the coastline 10 days after one tanker ran aground and the other was left damaged and adrift.
Krasnodar regional Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said that almost 7,000 people were still working to clean up the spill on Saturday.
More than 96,000 tons of contaminated sand and soil have been removed along the region’s shoreline since the original spill, he wrote on Telegram.
On 23 December, the ministry estimated that up to 200,000 tons in total may have been contaminated with mazut, a heavy, low-quality oil product.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the oil spill an “ecological disaster.”
The Kerch Strait, which separates the Russia-occupied Crimean Peninsula from the Krasnodar region, is an important global shipping route, providing passage from the inland Sea of Azov to the Black Sea.
It has also been a key point of conflict between Russia and Ukraine after Moscow annexed the peninsula in 2014.
In 2016, Ukraine took Moscow to the Permanent Court of Arbitration, where it accused Russia of trying to seize control of the area illegally.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, described the oil spill last month as a “large-scale environmental disaster” and called for additional sanctions on Russian tankers.
