New Fuel Oil Emissions Appeared On The Beaches Of Russia's Anapa
- 12.10.2025, 17:00
After the cessation of bottom cleaning activities.
Almost a month after the Krasnodar Region authorities reported that they had completed cleaning the Black Sea bottom from fuel oil, new contamination has been discovered on the coast of Russia's Anapa. Photos and videos of fuel clots on the beaches were published by local blogger Yuri Ozarovsky. According to him, emissions are observed along the three-kilometer-long coastline, especially a lot of them between the Zolotoy Bereg passage and Deauville beach, writes The Moscow Times.
"Everything is flowing, there is a smell in the sea," Ozarovsky reported. Local residents wrote in comments that the fuel oil appeared after a strong storm.
In turn, volunteers from the Dolphin headquarters told of numerous emissions near the Volna settlement in the Temryuksky district. "These are not even stains, the whole beach is covered with it. Liquid fuel oil is quickly absorbed into the sand and washed up," they said there. Volunteers asked for help as they do not have time to remove oil products for disposal due to the large volume of pollution. Three days ago, volunteers collected 167 bags. In addition, birds covered with fuel oil were found on the shore. They are being captured and tried to wash them. Tourists stumble upon the dying birds, including on the Blagoveshchenskaya Spit.
Oil has also appeared on the Black Sea coast in Sevastopol, said Russian-appointed "governor" Mikhail Razvozzhayev. He said "pinpoint spots of fuel oil" were found on beaches, but there was no mass pollution.
Ecologists speculate that the new emissions may be caused by the installation of piles for cofferdams - watertight sarcophagi in the Kerch Strait, where two tankers carrying more than 9,000 tons of fuel oil crashed in December. The work was completed on October 10.
"On October 11 came the sad news - the emissions are very similar to those in December 2024. The net, which lost its effectiveness in the summer because the fuel oil had aged, is picking it up again at first touch. We have collected samples and will do some research to understand what we are dealing with," Skoltech scientist Vladimir Kalyaev said.
The images from an altitude as early as October 8 showed black streaks stretching from sunken tankers along the Crimean coast. At the same time, Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Savelyev claimed that divers regularly inspect ship fragments underwater and no oil product leaks were found.
The Krasnodar region's operational headquarters announced the completion of work to clean the Black Sea bottom from oil products in the coastal zone of Anapa and Temryuksky district on September 19. In the nine months since the tanker wreck, 22,451 bags of fuel oil with a total weight of over 2,000 tons have been collected. In addition, 1,283 kilometers of coastline were cleaned and more than 181,500 tons of contaminated soil were removed.
In late July, Rosprirodnadzor said that it was impossible to collect all the fuel oil spilled into the Black Sea. The agency noted that fuel continues to flow into the water from sunken tankers, the work on utilization of which is scheduled to be completed in 2026.