Kamchatka, an ecological disaster is causing mass death of marine wildlife

[Lisbeth]

13 October 2020, by Luigi Mastrodonato

Toxic substances in Kamchatka’s waters have killed 95% of marine fauna and caused health problems for surfers. The causes, however, are still unknown.

Over the past few weeks, the sea surrounding the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia‘s far east has been coated in a yellowish foam. Beaches are littered with dead animals and several surfers have fallen ill. The causes of this ongoing environmental disaster are still unknown. Some speak of natural causes, some blame a pesticide waste plant and others say it could be related to Russian missiles from nearby military facilities.

95 per cent of marine animals have died
The peninsula, Khalaktyrsky beach in particular, is a small paradise for surfers. In recent years, some of the best in the world have hit the waves along these shores. Around mid-September local surfers started noticing that something wasn’t right. “Usually we feel good after a day of surfing, but that time our eyes were burning,” a surfer told the BBC. “It was difficult to simply look a few feet ahead”.

https://youtu.be/SCyXz5NsXFs

As the days went by, the situation became more severe. Surfers started reporting vomiting, fever, coughing, and problems with their eyes and skin. Some developed lesions on their corneas and eleven people were hospitalised. The bodies of dead marine wildlife started piling up the beaches and seafloor: seals, octopuses, sea urchins, crabs and fish. “95 percent are dead,” Ivan Usatov of the Kronotsky Nature Reserve said during a meeting with other scientists and Kamchatka governor Vladimir Solodov. “Some large fish, shrimps and crabs have survived, but in very small numbers”. However, even these animals are at risk as they’ll likely be poisoned by eating the carcasses of infected ones.

For several weeks now the water, much murkier than usual, has been covered in a yellowish foam and emitting a rancid smell. According to Greenpeace, seawater analyses detected an excess of oil products four times above acceptable limits and phenol (2.5 times higher). The polluted area extends for approximately 40 kilometres.

The search for answers in Kamchatka

Kamchatka’s government has launched an investigation and a team of researchers has started collecting and analysing samples of seawater as well as from local rivers. The sand will also be examined, and some of the dead animals will be studied to try to understand what substances caused this disaster. Meanwhile, drones have been deployed throughout the region to try to find the source of pollution.

Russia’s Environment Minister Dmitrij Kobylkine claims that the ongoing disaster is due to natural causes. “After the storms, there was an increase in microorganism toxicity in the region, causing changes to oxygen levels,” he declared. This version has been refuted by other organisations who instead view human activity as the cause.

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The regional Environment Minister Aleksej Kumarkov stated that the pollution could be the consequence of a leak of oil products from a passing commercial tanker. Other experts suggest the toxic waste facility in Kozelsk could have played a role in the tragedy. Approximately 108 tonnes of pesticides are stored at the plant located not far from the affected areas. A few weeks ago, news emerged of damage to some of the facility’s protective structures.

Biologist Vladimir Burkanov believes this storage plant could have contributed to the ecological disaster, but he also points the finger at the Radygino military base. Located ten kilometres away from the affected beaches, its old deposits of ultra-toxic missile fuel could have been damaged, leading to a discharge of materials.

Translated by Patrick Bracelli

[Lisbeth]

A Toxic Tide Has Lessons For Moscow

Tough reactions and transparency shown in Kamchatka mark a welcome change. Now it's time to tackle prevention.

By Clara Ferreira Marques, 14 ottobre 2020, 08:25 CEST


Openness is encouraging. Prevention would be better. Photographer: Yelena Vereshchaka/TASS via Getty Images

Last month, surfers on Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula began to complain of eye pain and corneal burns. Some fell ill. Dead octopus, star fish and sea urchins began to wash up on the beach. Yellow foam was visible from space.

Local officials have reacted with unusual transparency to the environmental disaster. It still took too long for wide-ranging investigations to get underway. In a country vulnerable to the consequences of global warming by virtue of its frozen expanses and coastlines, better oversight is sorely overdue.

For Russia, 2020 has been a year of climate warnings. Melting permafrost in the Arctic helped trigger a fuel-tank leak that released 20,000 tons of diesel into rivers and soil in late May, prompting comparisons with the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. By July, Siberian fires had engulfed an area larger than Greece.

The mysterious death of marine life in Russia’s sparsely populated eastern limb may seem smaller in scale but is no less dire. Scientists say the pollution has killed 95% of life on the sea floor in one bay. The 40-kilometer (25-mile) slick is now heading south, towards Japan.

In Moscow, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Dmitry Kobylkin played down the incident: It was no catastrophe, he said, as no one was hurt. A storm was blamed. Kamchatka’s governor, Vladimir Solodov, has done considerably better. His administration has brought in researchers and environmental groups, and last week pledged to publish the results of all analyses as it works to figure out the exact source of the problem. He provides updates on social media.

Better yet, Solodov vowed to clean up a troubled landfill for pesticides that was initially seen as a potential culprit, even as scientists began instead to suspect a harmful algal bloom — when naturally occurring algae grow out of control and produce toxins damaging to wildlife, a phenomenon increasingly common as sea waters warm.

A strong reaction, and indeed openness, are helpful signals, as Russia grapples with environmental challenges from record Arctic temperatures to the problematic legacy of Soviet-era environmental degradation. Earlier this year, the country’s environmental watchdog levied a near-$2 billion fine on miner MMC Norilsk Nickel PJSC over the diesel spill, a figure the company disputes.

Toxic Waters
2020 disasters in Norilsk and the Kamchatka Peninsula have left scars

Prevention is needed too, though, and improved controls would be a start. Currently, that responsibility is spread across multiple authorities. In the case of the Arctic leak, local officials said they found out about it from social media posts, prompting a rebuke from Putin; Nornickel has denied holding back information. In the Far East, surfers raised the alarm.

The exact cause of the Kamchatka disaster has yet to be firmly established. It is already clear, though, that supervision was insufficient. Even if neither a pesticide dump nor rocket fuel stored in nearby military installations were to blame, no one was able to swiftly say so for certain. And there are plenty of other such ageing stockpiles scattered along Russia’s distant eastern and northern reaches. As with water and soil checks, activists say much of what is sometimes Soviet-era monitoring could be updated and automated.

Further out, a clearer official strategy on combatting — not just adapting to — global warming would help. While algal blooms are not manmade, they are larger, more toxic and more frequent as sea temperatures rise. Official comments have only just begun to make the link in Kamchatka.

Suffering the consequences of a changing climate already, Russia could do worse than to put the green economy at the heart of its stated focus on developing the vast Far East region, broadly part of Putin’s national projects aimed at improving living standards and infrastructure. As Solodov argues, it would help expand tourism. So far, those plans have been heavier on rhetoric than on genuine investment and attention from the central government.

For Russian voters, ecological missteps have long had political implications: The mishandling of the Chernobyl cataclysm, after all, contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union. In a Levada Center poll published in January, before the coronavirus pandemic took hold, environmental pollution was listed as the top perceived threat, ahead of international terrorism, war and even climate change. With warnings piling up, it’s high time Moscow listens.

— With assistance by Elaine He