Limited information about the condition of the beaches in Tuapse and Anapa raises questions among local residents and activists.
Eighteen months after the fuel oil spill in the Black Sea, data on the condition of Anapa's beaches remains unclear. A similar situation exists in Tuapse, following a series of attacks on the seaport and coastal pollution with oil products, according to environmentalists and activists. Local residents believe the authorities are interested in increasing tourist traffic and are restricting information.
As reported by "Caucasian Knot," there are drops of oil products on the rocks at Primorsky Beach and the wild beach between Nebug and Tyumensky. An ecologist who traveled the coastline of the Tuapse District noted that the beaches of Lermontovo, Agoy, Dzhubga, and Shepsi are clean. However, he noted the low number of tourists on the beaches. Residents of Tuapse have drawn attention to oil pollution on the coastline near the Yuzhny boarding house and demanded that authorities clean the beaches. They also reported that bags of collected fuel oil have still not been removed from Vesna beach.
All beaches except the city ones have been cleared of oil products, and work continues there, the Tuapse administration announced, reporting on final preparations for the resort season. The opening of 69 beaches, including 11 public ones, was announced. On June 9, the head of the district clarified that this summer in Tuapse 66 beaches will welcome vacationers, including 15 public ones.
There is no complete picture of the condition of the beaches in Tuapse
Ecologist Igor Shkradyuk told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the assessment of the coastline's condition is limited in both geography and time. "Neither volunteers nor residents can physically survey the entire coastline. Therefore, any conclusions are always partial. "Swimming is acceptable for most people, but risks remain for those sensitive to petroleum products," he noted.
Shkradyuk also emphasized that in the absence of continuous monitoring, any reports of "clean" or "polluted" waters are approximate.
There may be remnants of old fuel oil in some places, but it's impossible to talk about large-scale pollution of the entire coastline.
Volunteer Zhanna Rybak, who is participating in coastal cleanup efforts, stated that even with active cleanup efforts, the situation cannot be fully clarified.
"Reports of pollution in specific areas can only be made after walking the entire coastline." "The installation of protective booms in the Tyumensky area is not related to new emissions, but to the fact that waves can wash away residual fragments of old fuel oil," she said.
According to Rybak, "in some areas, the pollution is localized."
"There may be remnants of old fuel oil somewhere, but it's impossible to talk about large-scale pollution of the entire coastline," she added.
According to volunteer headquarters members, work to install nets and collect possible residual oil products continues in the area of the village of Tyumensky and between Nebug and Tuapse.
"Currently, volunteers are working primarily in hard-to-reach areas of the coast, where debris can be washed away after storms," one of the volunteers, Oleg, told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. A volunteer headquarters representative notes that "the situation on the equipped beaches appears stable, but monitoring continues in the 'wild' areas."
"Official data from Rospotrebnadzor and regional authorities indicate localized pollution and no exceedances of standards at a number of surveyed sites, but access to a full picture of the monitoring remains limited, which fuels the debate on social media about the actual state of the beaches," explained Tatiana, a resident of the Tuapse District who is quite pessimistic.
She believes it will take decades for nature to clean up. After the Black Sea emergency, the woman herself prefers to bathe only in bathtubs, noting that she is now concerned not only about the purity of seawater but also about drinking water, which, in her opinion, cannot be clean after all the oil emergencies, the garbage problems at resorts, and the overall attitude toward the environment, both from officials at various agencies and from residents and vacationers themselves.
On May 1, a fire broke out at the Tuapse sea terminal after a drone attack. It was extinguished on May 2. This fire was the fourth in Tuapse since April 16. Earlier, on April 24, after booms broke due to rising water levels in the Tuapse River, an oil spill occurred into the Black Sea. On May 27, another attack on the seaport was reported. A series of attacks on Tuapse's oil infrastructure has led to environmental consequences, according to the "Caucasian Knot" report "Fires and "Oil Rain": Key Information on the Ecological Disaster in Tuapse".
Official Assessments Are Unreliable
Local resident Viktor, who works in auto repair, says he hasn't seen any oil spills himself, but has read social media posts about possible traces of oil products in certain areas, including the Vityazevo area. He says, "When he goes to the sandy beach for a swim, he can't know what's 'inside the pie.'"
"Maybe there's a thin or thick layer of fuel oil under the sand. How can I know for sure whether it's there or not?" "I go to the beach when I have time. What do I see? I saw a clean beach, but I can't see what's underneath the sand that was replaced. I read different reports: some write, as I'm telling you, that there's no visible pollution, while others point to localized residual stains from storms and believe that assessing the coastline's condition depends on the specific area and the time of observation, which I also agree with," says Viktor.
Previously, activists were concerned that the quality of the sand used to fill Anapa's beaches differs dramatically from the sand found in the dunes. This, they believe, could ruin the city's reputation as a resort. Authorities reported that over 136,000 cubic meters of sand have been delivered to Anapa's beaches, and over five kilometers of shoreline have already been repaved. New sand hardens after rain, and turns into a suspension in water, Telegram users noted.
He emphasizes that the local population is currently struggling to survive in difficult conditions, as fuel oil, drone attacks, flight cancellations and delays at airports are not conducive to a significant increase in tourist flow. In his opinion, the number of vacationers this year is significantly lower than, for example, in 2024, before the fuel oil spill.
Volunteer Yana from the Moscow region emphasized that "work continues on part of the Anapa coastline to sift sand and clean up any remaining pollution, carried out jointly by volunteers and local authorities." According to her, "there is no unified information for the entire coastline." "There is a shortage of volunteers," she told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.
Fake news and videos: estimates differ
A separate topic of discussion was a video circulating online, allegedly showing pollution in the Vityazevo area. Igor Shkradyuk, commenting on these materials, stated that the geography of the filming is questionable, since the video shows a pebble beach, whereas Vityazevo is characterized by a sandy surface.
Volunteer Zhanna Rybak, in turn, stated that she does not consider such materials to be outright fakes, but admits that individual publications may be exaggerated. "Sometimes such stories spread quickly, and this may be due to informational interest or competition between resort areas," she noted.
Sources associated with the local branches of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation in Anapa and Tuapse agreed that a complete independent picture of the state of the coast is lacking. According to one of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation members from Tuapse, "the tourism industry and local budgets are objectively interested in a stable flow of vacationers, which influences the information agenda around the environmental situation."
"It cannot be said that the problem It is completely hidden, but there is no complete transparency either. "The picture always appears fragmented and depends on who is observing what and where," noted a CPRF supporter from Anapa.
How could they open the season and claim that everything is fine when gigantic volumes of oil products have spilled into the sea in resort areas?
He emphasizes that the main problem is the concealment of reliable information and monitoring of the coastline from Anapa to the Tuapse District by official agencies such as Rosprirodnadzor, Rospotrebnadzor, the environmental prosecutor's office, and the Ministry of Natural Resources of the regional administration.
The resort season in Anapa opened amid a sharp contrast in the state of the coast. Some beaches are open and deemed safe, while other areas are closed due to erosion, unstable soil, and environmental risks. On June 16, users Networks have questioned the quality of the sand on Anapa's beaches. New sand on Anapa's beaches, already eroded by waves, is unlikely to survive the winter storms, they noted.
"There are tons of officials in these departments. Their job is to monitor and publish reliable information daily. But it seems that this monitoring is fragmented among different audiences. For internal use, for volunteers, for residents and vacationers. What do we see? We see that, according to the authorities, everything is fine for residents and tourists and the season is open. But how could they open the season and claim that everything is fine when gigantic volumes of oil products have spilled into the sea in resort areas? Undoubtedly, some of it has been removed through the combined efforts of authorities and volunteers. But what part of it is and where the rest will leak out, on which beaches, in which areas... it depends on many factors, such as, for example, the direction "winds, including political winds," emphasized a Communist Party supporter from Anapa.
He also said that the volunteers are primarily managed by the leaders of the local self-government bodies (TSOs) located near the beaches, all of whom are members of United Russia, and they are given manuals requiring them not to disclose the real-life situations volunteers face. "The TOS leaders from United Russia explain this to the volunteers on the ground simply and clearly: there's no need to create panic. Therefore, the silence or reticence of many is understandable," he added.
Materials about the consequences of the fuel oil spills in the Kerch Strait and Tuapse have been collected by the "Caucasian Knot" on the page "Eco-disaster in Kuban". Data on the scale of coastal pollution was collected by the "Caucasian Knot" in the reference material "Fuel Oil Spill in the Kerch Strait".
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