“Almost every day we receive information about new deaths,” continued this organization specializing in the rescue of dolphins and other cetaceans along the Russian coasts in the Black Sea and their rehabilitation.
According to the NGO, according to which “the victims are mainly porpoises”, “judging by the state of the bodies, it is very probable that most of these cetaceans died during the first ten days which followed disaster.”
“The pollution (of water by spilled fuel oil) is significant,” she warned.
For around three weeks, authorities and volunteers have organized a large-scale clean-up operation, but the situation continues to cause concern.
-More than 96,000 tonnes of contaminated sand have been removed from dozens of kilometers of beaches on the Russian coast, but in total some 200,000 tonnes of soil may have been affected, according to Russian authorities.
“More than 68 kilometers of coastline have been cleaned,” the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said on Sunday.
According to authorities, clean-up efforts are complicated by the fact that the type of oil spilled, heavy fuel oil grade M100, does not float on the surface of the water but instead sinks to depth.
