Anyone seen the news today? Oil tanker has split in two and leaking tonnes of oil, somewhere near the Russian part, some straight or other.

Russian oil tanker breaks up off Crimea
Sun Nov 11, 2007 5:12am EST Email | Print | Share| Reprints | Single Page | Recommend ( [-] Text [+]

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Russian oil tanker breaks up off Crimea
Fuel oil spills into Black Sea as tanker splits
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By Dmitry Solovyov

MOSCOW, Nov 11 (Reuters) - A severe storm broke a Russian oil tanker in two between the Azov and Black Seas, stranding 13 crew members and spilling fuel oil into the sea in what a Russian official said was an "environmental disaster".

The tanker, Volganeft-139, was on its way from the port of Azov in the southern Russian region of Rostov to Kerch in Ukraine's eastern Crimea when high waves broke its hull at around 0445 (0145 GMT) on Sunday, Russian media reported.

"According to preliminary data, some 1,300 tonnes of fuel oil could have spilt into the sea," Russia's state-run Vesti-24 channel quoted emergencies ministry officials as saying.

The tanker was carrying 4,000 tonnes of fuel oil in total, officials were quoted by media as saying.

The 13 crew members were drifting aboard the ship's stern in the Kerch strait, which runs between the Azov and Black Seas. Efforts to reach them were hampered by the storm, which was gaining force.

"The wind is now blowing in the direction of Ukraine's coast, so it is our common problem," Oleg Mitvol, deputy head of the state Rosprirodnadzor agency, told Russia's state-run Vesti-24 channel on Sunday.

"This problem may take a few years to solve. Fuel oil is a heavy substance and it is now sinking to the seabed," he said.

"This is a very serious environmental disaster."

The likely effects of the spill were not immediately clear. When the oil tanker Prestige sank off Spain in November 2002, about 64,000 tonnes of fuel oil leaked, causing severe habitat damage to beaches in France, Spain and Portugal.

Almost at the same time as the Volganeft-139 broke up, a freighter carrying 2,000 tonnes of sulphur sank in the same storm, off the port of Kavkaz overlooking the Kerch Strait from the Russian side.

Its crew of eight had been rescued after drifting in a raft for a few hours. "Sulphur is a very inert chemical, and we hope that in the water it will not form any substances dangerous to humans," Mitvol said.

As he spoke, news came of another oil tanker, Volganeft-123, the hull of which cracked after being hit by high waves.

Maxim Stepanenko, transport prosecutor of the nearby Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, told Russian television this tanker was afloat and its oil products were not leaking. (Reporting by Dmitry Solovyov; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

More here: http://www.russiatoday.ru/news/news/16771

This is really sad . I used to work in the oil pollution control business and I do know that unless it is skimmed off the surface within a few hours the oil emulsifies and it's virtually impossible to clean off until it reaches the beaches (or as you say sinks to the sea bed rendering it uncleanable).

It will have disasterous affects on marine life and birds for many years to come

Just little bit of oil can be deadly

Did you know that a seemly harmless dime-size glob of oil could kill a bird?

We may learn about the devastating effects of spills that occur when tankers accidentally loose their cargo, but there are thousands of small spills occurring daily around the world that go unreported and unnoticed. Millions of water birds die every year due to oil from a plethora of sources, from jet skis and motorboats, to oil washed off streets and into storm drains after rain.

Oil spills are just one of the ways that humans can have a harmful affect on bird populations. When oil mixes with water it floats on top of it because it is less dense. This is particularly harmful in the oceans because the ocean surface is where the majority of wildlife is, especially birds. Oil from spills coats birds' feathers, destroying their ability to repel water. Birds can become waterlogged and drown or may be poisoned while trying to clean their feathers of oil.

That's horrible. We just had one here in the San Francisco Bay. The damage will go on for decades. I cry for all the dead birds and other creatures. To see them with tar on their feathers is one of the saddest things I've seen.

San Francisco oil spill

Ref. to the oil spill in California: Animals that depended on the sea were hard hit. Incoming tides brought corpses of dead seals and dolphins. Oil can clog the blowholes of the dolphins, causing massive lung hemorrhages. Animals that ingested the oil were poisoned. Think of the gray whales migrating to their calving and breeding grounds.

The oil takes its toll on the seabird population. Shorebirds like plovers, godwits and willets which feed on sand creatures flee the area. Diving birds which must get their nourishment from the waters themselves were soaked with tar.

Picture of the 100,000 ton oil tanker Nassia, on fire near the Bosphorus on March 1994
www.grid.unep.ch/bsein/tda/files/2a43f.htm

Environmental disaster: www.turkishmaritime.com.tr/news_detail.php?id=196

It looks like another one? What is this with all these oil spills in one week?Tanker Spills Oil in Black Sea Strait

would you say that the Oil spill probably due to 'human error'