Russian and Ukrainian scientists to study Azov Sea problems

One of the projects of the South Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, supported by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) of Ukraine and the Russian Fund of Fundamental Researches, will deal with fighting pollution of the Azov Sea.

Doctor of Geography Sergey Berdnikov, manager of the project, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the project is a joint endeavour of Russian scientists and the Odessa Academic Institute of the NAS of Ukraine devoted to the problems of using the resources of the Azov and Black Seas in the interests of both countries.

One of the problems under study concerns biological resources of the Azov Sea and the Kerch Strait, where an accident with mazut spillage took place on November 11, 2007. In the Kerch Strait, the forces of the Russian Ministry for Emergencies have managed rather quickly to clean the coastal line thanks to the seaweeds, which absorb black oil (mazut). However, the rocky section is still heavily contaminated. The volume of spilled mazut makes about 1-2 thousand tons. Part of mazut sank, and now it starts to float up. For lack of funds allocated by the state, last autumn the deposits of mazut were not contoured.

There is also a problem of recycling the used seaweeds, which were buried into the same dumps with the perished birds and contaminated soil. The total volume of soil, seaweeds and mazut in need of recycling makes 50,000 tons.