More than 2,500 birds rescued from fuel oil contamination on beaches in the Anapa and Temryuk districts of Kuban, Russia, are being released back into the wild following a massive oil spill caused by a tanker wreck in the Kerch Strait.
The Krasnodar Territory task force reported that birds deemed healthy by specialists have started being released in Krasnodar and within the Zaporizhzhya-Tamansky Reserve.
The decision to release the birds was made in consultation with leading ornithological experts.
Meanwhile, 1,622 birds have been transferred to rehabilitation centers for further care.
Details of the Spill
The environmental disaster began on December 15 when two fuel oil tankers, Volgoneft 212 and Volgoneft 239, sank in the Kerch Strait, causing a significant spill of oil products.
Interfax reports that the pollution stretched over 60 kilometers along the coastline.
Efforts to contain and clean up the spill involved more than 10,000 people and 700 units of equipment, including volunteers.
According to the Russian Ministry of Transport, four tanks carrying oil products were damaged during the incident, resulting in the release of approximately 2,400 tons of fuel oil into the sea. Cleanup crews have since removed over 78,000 tons of oil-contaminated sand from the Kuban coast.
On December 25, Krasnodar Krai Governor Veniamin Kondratyev declared a regional state of emergency.
The following day, a federal state of emergency was declared by a government commission chaired by Alexander Kurenkov, the head of Russia’s Emergencies Ministry.
