New fuel oil emissions detected in Anapa and Temryuk district

Volunteers discovered oil spills today in the village of Veselovka, on the Bugaz Spit, and in the village of Blagoveshchenskaya. The monitoring was conducted following a warning from Kuban authorities that a fuel oil slick weighing up to 900 tons was moving toward the shore.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," on October 23, Kuban authorities announced that a fuel oil slick weighing up to 900 tons was moving in the Black Sea toward the shores of Taman and the Temryuk district. In Anapa, restoration of a 13-kilometer protective embankment along the main beaches has begun; by October 23, 9 kilometers of the structure were completed. Volunteers from the Dolphins headquarters stated that the preliminary estimate of a 900-ton spill is significantly exaggerated.

Fuel oil has again begun to appear on the seashore in the Temryuk and Anapa districts, volunteers from the Dolphins headquarters reported today, October 24.

"According to preliminary data, between 100 and 700 tons of petroleum products entered the waters. Emissions were recorded in the following locations: the village of Veselovka [in the Temryuk district], Bugazskaya Spit, and the [Anapa village] of Blagoveshchenskaya," the headquarters reported in a Telegram post.

Fuel oil could reach this area within two days.

In the village of Volna, the shore remains clear, the report noted. "However, based on experience from previous months, fuel oil can reach here within two days—this is influenced by the terrain and sea currents. Veselovka has once again become a hot spot today. The Dolphins headquarters has traveled there to monitor and quickly clean up the coastline," the activists reported.

As of 10:28 Moscow time, the Kuban operational headquarters had not reported any new information on the pollution situation on its Telegram channel.

Blogger Yuri Ozarovsky confirmed reports of coastal pollution in Blagoveshchenskaya today. "Unfortunately, there is fuel oil. It's not liquid, it's in chunks, and not as much as I thought," he wrote.

Spillage along the shore

In another post, the blogger added that "the situation further along the beaches is the same everywhere." "The spill is scattered along the shore. But the scale is clearly not that critical," he noted.

"It's not that critical, and a current has already formed past the beach. So we hope it won't get any worse," Ozarovsky wrote today in another post.

As a reminder, in mid-October, volunteers and bloggers reported fuel oil spills after a storm in Anapa and the Temryuk district. The regional task force reported that the fuel oil spills were insignificant. Environmentalists stated that large-scale coastal cleanup must resume.

On December 15, 2024, two tankers carrying fuel oil sank in the Kerch Strait. A crew member of one of the tankers died as a result. Additionally, an oil spill occurred, leading to catastrophic environmental consequences, according to the Caucasian Knot report "Fuel Oil Spill in the Kerch Strait".

As a result of the environmental disaster, Rospotrebnadzor (the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing) declared 141 beaches in Anapa and nine beaches in the Temryuk District unsuitable for recreation. Fuel oil was detected on all beaches in Anapa, along the coast in the Temryuk District, and on the Sea of Azov coast in the Slavyansky District of Kuban, according to the Caucasian Knot report "The Scale of Fuel Oil Pollution in Southern Russia".