Thirty-two dolphins have died after fuel oil spilled from two storm-damaged tankers three weeks ago in the Kerch Strait, which separates the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula from Russia's southern Krasnodar region, an animal rescue group said on Sunday.
Russia's Delfa Dolphin Rescue and Research Center said the deaths were “most likely linked to a fuel oil spill”.
The center said on the Telegram messaging app that a total of 61 dead cetaceans – an order of aquatic mammals that includes whales and dolphins – had been reported since the emergency, but the condition of the bodies indicated that 29 others had died before the spill. .
“Judging by the condition of the bodies, it is likely that most of these cetaceans died in the first 10 days after the disaster. And now the sea continues to wash them away,” the center writes, noting that most of the dead dolphins were from the Azov species, which is under threat of extinction.
The Russian Emergencies Ministry said on Sunday that more than 96,000 tons of contaminated sand and soil were removed by officials and volunteers along the coastline of the Anapa and Temryuk districts of the Krasnodar Territory.
The ministry said it was working to clean up the incident, but “strong winds and waves” washed oil onto some beaches.
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“More than 68 kilometers of coastline have been cleared,” the report says.
In a statement on Sunday, the ministry said two new oil slicks had been discovered.
One was near the sea resort of Anapa, and the other was in Kapsel Bay, according to the report, which refers to the Russian news agency TASS.
The length of the second spot in the news agency is two kilometers.
The type of fuel oil that caused the incident is particularly difficult to clean because it is dense and heavy and does not float on the surface, Russian authorities say.
Russian-appointed officials in Moscow-occupied Crimea declared a regional state of emergency on Saturday after oil was found off the coast of Sevastopol, the peninsula's largest city about 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the Kerch Strait.
On December 23, the ministry estimated that a total of 200,000 tons of fuel oil, a heavy, low-quality oil product, could have been contaminated.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called the oil spill an “ecological disaster.”
The Kerch Strait is an important global shipping route that provides passage from the inland Sea of Azov to the Black Sea.
It has also become a key point of conflict between Russia and Ukraine since Moscow annexed the peninsula in 2014. In 2016, Ukraine sued Moscow in the Permanent Chamber of the Arbitration Court, where it accused Russia of trying to illegally seize control of the territory. In 2021, Russia closed the strait for several months.
The adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, Mikhail Podoliak, called last month's oil spill a “large-scale environmental disaster” and called for additional sanctions against Russian tankers.
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In recent years, oil spills have affected marine life. Last year, an oil spill that spilled more than 34,000 gallons into a South Louisiana Bayou at least 17 aquatic salamanders and three turtles died, and three ducks and three alligators were reportedly covered in oil.
In 2022, a massive diesel gamesI killed thousands of animals near New Orleans. A year earlier, Louisiana wildlife officials said they had documented more than 100 birds soaked in oil after a crude oil spill from a refinery during Hurricane Ida.
At least in 2020 38 dead dolphins washed ashore on the island of Mauritius after a massive oil spill from a Japanese ship.
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.