Sinking ships cause ecological disaster in Black Sea (2nd Roundup)

Nov 12, 2007, 17:13 GMT

Kiev - Some 2,000 tons of heating oil spilled into the Black Sea from a wrecked tanker as a vicious winter storm slammed into the Crimean peninsula causing an 'ecological disaster,' Russian environmental authorities reported Monday.

Four cargo ships sank in Sunday's storm which whipped up 6-metre waves, the head of the Russian emergency Situations, Anatoly Yanchuk, said.

Three sailors were found dead in the water shortly after the tanker broke up.

Three more bodies thought to be drowned sailors were found washed up on the Russian side of the Kerch Strait on Monday morning, the Interfax news agency reported.

Four other vessels - two cargo ships and two ocean-going barges - grounded in some of the worst winter weather seen in the region in a decade.

Another 15 ships suffered substantial damage as a result of the storm, according to news reports. As many as 60 ships had been anchored in the vicinity of the strait, when the storm struck, Inter television reported.

Russian hospitals in the region held 27 people injured in the shipping accidents, three in serious condition, Channel 5 television reported.

The sunken tanker Volgoneft-139 had leaked 2,000 tons of the 4,000 tons of fuel oil it was carrying into the Kerch Strait linking the Black Sea and Sea of Azov.

Ukrainian and Russian television showed images of dozens of sea birds blackened by the sludge. As many as 30,000 ducks, geese, and cormorants will die as a result of the slick, said Andrei Rudomakh, a Russian environmental activist.

A few nautical miles away from the tanker two cargo ships carrying a total 6,000 tons of sulphur were under water near Tuzla Island, one after a collision with a vessel torn loose from its moorings. Eight sailors were known to be missing.

A fourth sunk cargo ship, carrying steel products, was unlikely to pose a substantial threat to the environment, Korrespondent magazine reported.

Rescue teams found alive two sailors and a cook in the strait's waters early Monday morning. A search effort by Russian and Ukrainian navy and civilian vessels, and helicopters, was in progress throughout the day under clearing skies.

Searches were temporarily called off early Monday evening due to rougher seas and darkness making aircraft less useful, said Nestor Shufrich, Ukraine's Emergency Situations Minister.

As many as 23 sailors were still unaccounted for to rescue officials, but a substantial portion of the missing personnel was likely safe ashore, Shufrich said.

Clean-up crews numbering over 500 men had placed floating spill control fences around the slick, and by Monday evening some 190 tonnes of oil had been hosed out of the water, Interfax reported.

The remaining oil appeared to be moving out to sea, away from the Ukrainian coast, Ukraine's Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich said.

High waves and strong winds made pumping out the oil still inside the tanker impossible for the present, Channel 5 television reported.

The Russian state prosecutor said initial investigations had shown that the Volganeft-139 was not storm-proof and should have stayed in port when the storm was drawing in.

Elsewhere a Russian dry bulk ship carrying agricultural equipment was driven ashore near the Ukrainian port city Sudak, some 300 kilometres from the Kerch Strait.

The crew evacuated the vessel safely, Ukrainian officials said.

A freighter loaded with scrap metal was in sinking condition in a bay near the Ukrainian port Sevastopol. Of the 17-member crew, two were evacuated and 15 were missing.

Two cargo ships, one Georgia-flagged and the other Turkey-flagged, were reportedly driven aground near the Russian port Novorossisk. A failed main engine and broken anchor chain were responsible for the mishaps, a Novorossisk official said.

The severe winds and driving snow knocked out power ashore in the port city Sevastopol, paralysing public transport and leaving some buildings in the area without heating.

More than 230 villages and towns in the Crimean region lost power as a result of the storm. Shore regions of the Black Sea peninsula on Monday morning were littered with blown down trees and smashed advertising hoardings, and houses throughout the region suffered roof damage, Korrespondent reported.