Andrei Rudomakha: environmental catastrophe in Kerch Strait was inevitable

The environmental catastrophe on the Taman peninsular (Krasnodar krai) in the Kerch Strait is unprecedented by its scale, according to Andrei Rudomakha, coordinator of Environments Watch in North Caucasus. The main responsibility rests with the authorities and the companies which dealt with hauling hazardous freight in such vulnerable place.

The "Caucasian Knot" reported earlier that, on November 11, six Russian sea vessels crashed in Kerch Strait, Krasnodar krai, in the storm (two dry cargo ships with sulfur load sank, a tanker cracked, and a non-self-propelled barge and a sea floating crane stuck in low water).

"The information to the effect that sulfur was in containers is not true," says Andrei Rudomakha. "It was loaded loose in the "Kavkaz" port. The "Kavkaz" port has been repeatedly getting notifications that it is inadmissible because people living nearby within the sanitary zone suffer."

"I think that liquidation of the emergency consequences may take several months, even by the most optimistic scenario," said Alexei Kiselev, head of the Russian Greenpeace toxic program.

According to Andrei Rudomakha, ecologists, members of the organization "For Rescuing Taman!", are working now at the place of the catastrophe.

"We are in contact not only with ecologists," he says, "but also with local residents and authorities. The oil spill is huge. It has reached the Azov sea and approaches the Kamennyi cape in the vicinity of the Priazovskiy village."

According to ecologists' estimates, birds have seriously suffered. They claim that mass deaths among them have been registered and are likely to continue. The consequences for the fish migration may also be incomparable.