Oil spill in Black Sea

The oil spill came from Volgoneft-139, a small Russian oil tanker off the Ukrainian port of Kerch. It had spilled at least 1300 tonnes of oil. The tanker was carrying 4000 tonnes of oil in total when it was hit by a storm. A spill of over 700 tonnes is considered large. In the cold waters the thick oil will sink to the bottom making the cleaning task even more difficult. At the coastal settlement of Ilyich about 100 workers are working on the beach to scrape the oil globules off the sand. Birds seeking shelter on the shore during storm were covered with oil and seaweeds. A flock of rails huddle on the beach unable to fly because of oil coating on their feathers. Rails were becoming easy prey for wild dogs as they wee unable to fly and protect themselves. Oleg Mitvol, deputy head of environment agency Rosprirodnadzor said the spill could take years to fix.