Kerch strait

Greenpeace volunteers cleaned up part of the oil spill along the Azov Sea shore last weekend. More than 20 kilometers of the coastline here are still polluted with oil. However, the clean-up operation here yet has not even been started.

Reports of soaring oil prices nearing $100 per barrel were recently countered with grotesque images of seabirds lying on the seashore drenched in fuel oil, unable to move let alone fly. These most visible victims of the November 11 oil spill in the narrow Kerch Strait, which links the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov, became vivid symbols of negligence triggered by the increasing gains from exporting the “black gold.”