« Fair Isle Bird Report 2006 - now available | Main | World Cup airport will look out for Swallows »
November 16, 2007
Too early to tell on Black Sea oil spill
The full environmental impacts of this week's oil spill in the Black Sea would not be known for some time, the global conservation organization WWF has said.
At least four ships sank, including one tanker believed to be carrying about 1200 tonnes of oil, and four others were in danger of breaking up after a severe storm hit the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea on Sunday.
“This is a tragic incident because lives have been lost, and there are some people who are still missing,” said Guillermo Castilleja, Programme Director of WWF International. “WWF deeply regrets this loss of life, and, beyond that, all we can say at the moment is it is too early to say for sure what the environmental impacts will be.
Cormorant © Jon Hall, at risk, from the surfbirds galleries
“The eco-system in this area has been degraded in the past by other spills and pollutants, and this latest spill will be a further setback.”
However, three experts from WWF-Russia, highlighted the need for a greater focus on safety.
WWF-Russia’s Director of Conservation Policy, Dr Evgeny Shvarts, said: “WWF hopes that the accident will lead to the adoption of a law guaranteeing safety of oil operations in seas and rivers, similar to the Oil Pollution Act adopted in the US after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989.”
Alexey Knizhnikov, head of WWF-Russia’s oil and gas programme, said: “The accident is a natural consequence of the situation when ships constructed for rivers sail in the sea. In the Strait of Kerch, river vessels and sea vessels change cargos, as sea vessels cannot enter the Don and Volga rivers because of small water draft. But vessels constructed for rivers cannot stand strong sea storms."
Oleg Tsaruk, head of WWF-Russia Caucasus branch: “To minimize the consequences of oil spills in the sea, it is important to create a permanent Russian-Ukranian group capable of coordinating emergency services of the two countries. This agency should not only be responsible for cleaning up oil spills. Its main function should be preventing potential accidents. Everyone had been warned about the coming storm before November 11, but there hadn’t been any strict command to take ships with poisonous cargos to safe places.”
Posted by Surfbirds at November 16, 2007 10:06 PM
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)