On December 15, two Russian oil tankers, the Volgoneft-212 and the Volgoneft-239 were hit by a storm in the Kerch Strait, with one sinking and the other running aground.
The strait separates southern Russia from the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.
The ships were carrying 9,200 tonnes of fuel oil, around 40 percent of which may have spilled into the sea, according to Russian authorities.
President Vladimir Putin last week called it an "ecological disaster".
Thousands of volunteers were mobilised to remove oil-sogged sand from nearby beaches.
But scientists say the volunteers don't have needed equipment.
"There are no bulldozers there, no trucks. Practically no heavy machinery," said Viktor Danilov-Danilyan at a news conference.
Danilov-Danilyan is the scientific head of the Water Problems Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and served as Russia's environment minister in the 1990s.
The volunteers have only "shovels and useless plastic bags that rip apart", he said.
"While the bags wait to finally be collected storms arrive and they end up back in the sea. It's unthinkable!"
Public criticism of the authorities is rare in Russia.
Up to 200,000 tonnes of sand may have been contaminated with oil, Russia's minister of natural resources said on Monday.
Nearly 30,000 tonnes have already been collected, said Krasnodar region Governor Veniamin Kondratyev on Wednesday.
Sergei Ostakh, a professor at the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, said the oil could soon reach shores in Crimea.
"No one should have illusions it will stay clean," he said, calling for quick action.
The oil spills may have killed 21 dolphins, the Delfa dolphin rescue centre said, although additional tests were needed to confirm the cause of death.
Oil leak in Peru tourist zone triggers 'environmental emergency'
Lima (AFP) Dec 26, 2024 -
Peru has declared an "environmental emergency" after an oil spill that triggered a clean-up operation on a stretch of northern coastline popular with tourists.
According to state-owned energy company Petroperu, the cleaning of half a dozen beaches in Talara province has almost finished and work was planned to mitigate the impact on birds, fauna and commerce in the area, whose population relies on fishing and tourism.
The emergency measure will be in effect for 90 days, during which time the authorities must carry out recovery and remediation work, according to an environment ministry resolution cited late Wednesday by state news agency Andina.
The leak was detected last Friday on Las Capullanas beach when the crude oil was about to be loaded onto a tanker, the company said at the weekend without specifying the cause or amount of oil spilled.
The government's Environmental Assessment and Oversight Agency said the leaked oil extended over an area of 47 to 229 hectares (116 to 566 acres).
The public prosecutor's office launched an investigation Sunday against Petroperu for the alleged crime of environmental contamination that it said had affected the sea and shore along the South American nation's Pacific coastline.
"Birds and marine fauna were also found to be seriously affected," it said.
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