Vegetable oil slicks have once again been discovered along the coast of Tuzly Estuaries National Nature Park in the Odessa region.
Ivan Rusev, an ecologist and employee of the national park, reported this.
“While monitoring dead dolphins, we once again discovered oil in an isolated lake on the sandy spit within the national park’s protected area,” he wrote.
The ecologist recalled that vegetable oil began appearing along the park’s coastline following Russian strikes on seaports in the Odessa region in the spring of this year. According to him, at the time, around 10,000 square metres of the sandy spit were contaminated with vegetable oil. The substance covered not only the sand but also entered some of the inland lakes, where it polymerised and settled on the bottom.
Rusev said the latest discovery of oil along the coast demonstrates how long it takes for marine and estuary aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems to recover from such pollution, as well as its negative impact on biodiversity.
Following a Russian attack on the Odessa region on April 26, a sunflower oil spill was recorded in the waters of the Port of Chornomorsk. A storage tank containing 6,000 tonnes of oil was destroyed in the attack. Despite measures to contain the spill, some of the oil entered the port waters.
Oil also leaked into the Black Sea following a Russian attack on the Port of Pivdennyi in December 2025.
