The Commission on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution

Statement of the 17th Regular Meeting of the Commission on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution (draft)

The participants from the Black Sea countries in the 17th Meeting of the Commission on the Protection on the Black Sea Against Pollution express their highest concern about the vessel accidents in the Kerch Strait, including the oil spill occured in the region. The Commission on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution appreciates the efforts of Ukraine and Russian Federation in their joint operation to minimizethe environmental damage and limit the dispersal of fuel oil and sulphur. The accident that occurred after the successful completion of a regional oil spill preparedness exercise (SULH 2007) in Eregli, hosted by Turkey, shows the utmost importance of being prepared for common actions in case of similar future accidents at the regional level. The Convention signed and ratified by all riparian countries provides the legal framework and the Contingency Plan, signed by 3 countries (Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey) provides the concrete actions to be taken for such cooperation and appeals to other countries for signature. The Commission stresses the importance of the Contingency Plan and other related documents and their provisions for the collective preparedness of the Black Sea countries for emergency situations. The Commission will continue to work on the necessary policy and other actions to minimize the risks and impact of oil and other hazardous subsances on the Black Sea environment.

Statement from the Commissioner on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution Ukraine

Dear colleagues,

According to the Convention on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution we would like to inform you about environmental situation that had occurred in the Kerchenskiy Bay region regarding the shipwrecks.

Due to the operative information that is available for the Ministry of Environmental Protection of Ukraine, as a result of the sea storm and poor weather conditions in the Kerchenskiy Bay area, in the territorial waters of Ukraine, on Sunday 11 November 2007 the 3 ships were wrecked (Volganeft with oil cargo 4077 tons), (Volnogorsk with sulfur cargo 2100 tons) and (Kovel with sulfur cargo 1923 tons). The wrecked ships are lying at 7-12 meters deep.

To asses the scale of the hazards impact is not available due to the poor weather conditions and the necessity of data handling about the cargo of the mentioned ships.

Recently, the spatial expert group that consists of the competent representatives is working on the assessment of the impact to the marine environmental of the Black Sea in that region.

The Ukrainian Party will inform about the results of the data handling and simulation of the situation.