Russian oil spill cleanup hampered by winds

So far, the birds are the catastrophe's most obvious victims. Vasily Spiridonov, marine and coastal projects chief coordinator for the WWF-Russia, told journalists that "the damage to the seafloor ecosystem is harder to measure."

But at least one Russian scientist cautioned against overstating the effects of the spill, saying the flyways of swans and other migratory birds lie to the south of northern Black Sea coastline.

"The claims about the death of 30,000 birds are, most probably, an over-estimation," Boris Vasilyev, a biologist at the prestigious Moscow State University, told the state-run ITAR-Tass news agency.

Wild dogs attack oiled birds
In any case, birds were certainly the most immediate victims. A flock of about 1,000 rails, a species of wetland bird, were huddled on the beach in the town of Ilyich, unable to fly because their feathers were coated with oil. Some were unable to stand.

Cleanup workers said wild dogs had been taking advantage of the birds' condition to attack them. A Reuters reporter found a number of the birds on the beach with their heads torn off.

Oil poured into heavy seas Sunday when high winds and towering waves battered an oil tanker, the Volganeft-139, and broke it in two. About half of the Volganeft-139's cargo of 4,800 metric tons (1.3 million gallons) of fuel gushed into the water, officials estimated. The craft's 13 crew members were rescued.

As many as 10 other ships sank or ran aground in the gale, including the freighter Nakhichevan, which broke up and spilled a load of sulfur, officials said. The bodies of three of the Nakhichevan's crew members washed up on shore Monday.

Rescuers continued Tuesday to hunt for five missing crewmen, said Sergei Kozhemyaka, a spokesman for the Emergency Situations Ministry. Two other freighters loaded with sulfur sank as well.

Russian and U.S. environmental officials said the spilled sulfur posed no immediate environmental threat.

Reuters A bird covered in fuel oil sits on a shore near Russia's southern port of Kavkaz on Monday.

Maxim Stepanenko, a regional prosecutor, told the Russian television channel Vesti 24 that captains had been warned Saturday about the stormy conditions. He said the Volganeft-139 — designed during Soviet times to transport oil on rivers — was not built to withstand a powerful storm.

Ukraine's Yanukovich noted the tanker had a single hull, instead of the two on newer ocean-going tankers.

"In the Bosporus Strait, it's not possible to use tankers which have no double hulls. How is the Kerch strait different? It isn't," he said at a news briefing in Kiev.

Environmental campaign group Greenpeace said the oil spill revealed the shortcomings of shipping safety in the region.

"In Russia we do not have one hundred percent of our ships maintained in a suitable condition as is the practice in the West," Alexei Kiselyov, coordinator of Greenpeace Russia's anti-pollution campaigns, told Reuters. "In the last few days we have seen a very clear demonstration of that."

Sulfur also spilled
The Nakhichevan and the other freighter together were carrying about 7,150 tons of sulfur, which also spilled into the waters.

Russian environmental officials said the sulfur did not appear to pose any environmental danger. Jim Farr, a chemist with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, compared the spill to dumping a load of sand in the water and smothering a reef, or covering a patch of grass with a blanket.

However, he said that it was difficult to know the long-term effects without better knowledge of the area’s depth and currents.

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