Environmental Crisis: Black Sea Oil Contaminates Abkhazias Shoreline

Heavy fuel oil resulting from a spill in December has washed ashore in Abkhazia, which is situated over 350 kilometers (217 miles) southeast of the spill location, according to a local climatologist who spoke to Kremlin-funded media on Sunday.

Asida Akhsalba informed Sputnik Abkhazia that while there is a minor increase in oil concentrations, it poses no significant threat to both tourists and residents who have already begun the swimming season. However, she did mention that the contamination could negatively impact marine ecosystems.

Akhsalba pointed out that Abkhazia, a Russian-backed separatist region in Georgia, lacks the necessary financial resources and equipment to adequately monitor air and soil pollution or to fully determine the extent of the oil’s spread deeper in the sea.

Currently, Abkhaz authorities carry out monthly water tests, Akhsalba noted, and she also mentioned that surface water temperatures along the coast are rising, which may elevate the risks associated with pollution.

On December 15, in one of the most significant environmental crises in the Black Sea in recent years, two older Russian tankers released about half of their 9,200 metric tons of mazut, a heavy fuel oil, after encountering a storm near the annexed Crimea and the Krasnodar region of southern Russia.

President Vladimir Putin has previously cautioned that warmer sea temperatures during spring and summer might lead to more oil surfacing from the seabed.

Abkhazia, located between the Black Sea and the Caucasus Mountains, is internationally acknowledged as part of Georgia but has been effectively under Russian control since the war in 2008. The region continues to attract many Russian tourists.