Volunteers called the discharges on the coast of Kuban insignificant.
The storm washed oil products onto the coast of Kuban, but their quantity is insignificant, noted volunteers. The Aframax Rio tanker, which caught fire due to a drone attack, is still waiting to be unloaded.
As reported by "Caucasian Knot", on October 16, the administration of Novorossiysk reported the elimination of oil product discharges on the beaches of Abrau-Dyurso and Myskhako. However, on October 18, rescuers, officials, and local residents continued to clean the coast in the area of Abrau-Dyurso. After the storm, bags of fuel oil buried under the pebbles were exposed on the beach in Myskhako, reported an eco-activist. Ecologist Evgeny Vitishko pointed out that the same fate could befall the waste collected on the coast of Anapa, Novorossiysk, Gelendzhik, and the Tuapse district, and called on supervisory authorities to ensure the completion of the cleanup. Collecting the pollution is only half the job, and the cleanliness of the coast should not rely solely on volunteers, volunteers emphasized, urging timely removal of what has been collected on the shore.
On the evening of October 6, an oil tanker Aframax Rio caught fire in the Black Sea near Sochi, after which beaches in Sirius were closed, and access to the embankments and beaches in Sochi was restricted. On October 7, the Ministry of Transport confirmed that the fire started after an attack by unmanned boats. Subsequently, authorities reported that no sea pollution was recorded after the fire on Aframax Rio. On October 14, oil product discharges were found on the shore in Novorossiysk, where the tanker was towed, and authorities called them "insignificant." The captain of the port of Novorossiysk ordered the owner of the Aframax Rio tanker to ensure the safety of the vessel, as anchorage is unsafe during a storm, and to monitor the ship's list.
The Aframax Rio tanker is still waiting to be unloaded, earlier reported ecologist Georgy Kavonasyan on his Telegram channel. "The list has been leveled. Sorbent has been piled around, boom barriers are not visible," he noted on October 21, attaching photographs of the tanker.
Volunteers believe that after the storm, a negligible amount of oil products was washed ashore.
"One could say we got off lightly. Yes, somewhere it splashed and smeared. During the storm, individual fragments were tossed around, which is why kite surfers got dirty, and in some places, it was necessary to scrub the heels. But fortunately, there was no significant problem," noted the Telegram channel "Volunteers SSL."
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