Russian scientists criticize cleanup efforts after Black Sea oil spill

Russian scientists  criticize cleanup efforts after  Black Sea oil  spill.
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Experts are criticizing the lack of equipment  needed to clean up  an estimated 4,300  tons of oil after two tankers  were hit by  a storm in the Kerch  Strait.
Russian scientists have  criticized efforts to clean up  the oil  spill on the Black  Sea coast, saying  they lack sufficient  equipment.
On December 15, two Russian tankers, Volgoneft-212 and  Volgoneft-239, were hit by a storm in the Kerch Strait,  where one  sank and the other  flooded.
The strait separates southern Russia from  Ukraine's Crimean peninsula, which it annexed in  2014.
The ships were carrying 9,200  tons of oil, about 40% of which spilled into the sea, according to Russian  authorities.
President Vladimir Putin last week called  the situation an  "ecological disaster." Thousands of volunteers  have been mobilized to remove  oil-soaked sand from nearby beaches. But scientists say the volunteers  lack the necessary  equipment.
"There are no  bulldozers, no trucks.  Almost no heavy machinery," Viktor Danilov-Danilyan  said at a news  conference.
Danilyan is the scientific  director of the  Institute of Water Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences and served as Russia's environment minister in the  1990s. The volunteers have only  "useless shovels and plastic bags that  tear," he  explained.
"While the bags  are waiting to  be finally collected, storms  come and end up  returning to the  sea."
Public criticism of the authorities is rare in  Russia.
Almost 30,000  tons have already been  recovered, Krasnodar region governor Veniamin Kondratyev  said Wednesday.
Sergei Ostakh, a professor at the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, said the oil could soon reach  the Crimean coast. "No one should have  any illusions  that the island will  remain clean," he said, calling for  swift action.
The oil  spill may have killed 21 dolphins, the Delfa  Dolphin Rescue Center said, although  more tests  are needed to confirm the cause of  death.

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