Environmental Impact on the Black Sea Coast
Recently, employees of the national nature park "Tuzlivski Limany" surveyed the Black Sea coast to detect polluted areas affected by the tanker accident on December 15, 2024, in the Kerch Strait.
Within the national park, another section of two kilometers of sandy spit near the Tuzlivski Limany-Black Sea strait was found where the sea had washed ashore oil of various fractions weighing a total of one kilogram. It was quickly collected as it was very soft due to the temperature of +30 degrees on the sand.
Interestingly, it was mostly washed ashore along with seagrass - zostera and various shells. Strong winds and underwater currents have recently uprooted seagrass from the seabed where the oil had spread, washing it ashore.
It is likely that oil is still present along the Odesa coast, but not all beaches are being surveyed. Furthermore, strong winds and sand displacement on the spit recently may have partially covered it, dissolving it in the sand and poisoning sandy biocenoses.
The majority of the oil that may have reached the northwestern Black Sea region from the accident site on December 15, 2024, is now dissolving with the rising temperatures and is being "integrated" into the food chains of the hydrobionts in the marine ecosystem and Tuzlivski Limany. In particular, the oil likely had a negative impact on the atherina fish, which died and was washed ashore at the Bournas Liman near the mentioned strait along the two-kilometer sandy spit.
