Over 21 signals for fuel oil on beaches near Sozopol and Tsarevo in just 24 hours. There are signals from the Northern Black Sea coast – to the beaches of Romantica and Kamchia.
Three ministries are checking what led to the emergence of the black spots. Yesterday, the Minister of Tourism insisted on immediate information from the competent institutions and assured that the concessionaires would clean the polluted beaches. In the meantime, the "Maritime Administration" has conducted an inspection that showed that there is no pollution on the surface of the water. Otherwise, oil stains continue to surface on new beaches today, some of them even reaching the Northern Black Sea coast.
How big is the problem, who exactly caused it and what punishment will they face? How did the authorities react?
„This whole thing is fuel oil. There it is. All the algae, everything is in fuel oil, there it is“.
Yesterday, the "eco-beach" Koral also woke up with black spots on the sand.
Ventsislav Atanasov: „My feet were completely covered in fuel oil.
BNT: Was it hard to clean it?
– With beach oil it comes off relatively easily, but it's disgusting. It's terrible. There were also puppies, all white had become Dalmatians“.
Yvelin: „I look where the spots are and try to jump over them. We were in the water, so far we are clean“.
Martin Makaveev: “100 meters up, a woman warned us that there was fuel oil, especially in the algae, to be careful not to step on it. This is very worrying, because here it looks like a slightly wilder beach and it should be cleaner“.
According to environmentalists, the pollution comes from oil spills in the sea about 20 km from the coast in the Bulgarian economic zone. Atanas Rusev has been monitoring the fuel oil stains that surface on the coast for 15 years.
Atanas Rusev, association “Let's Save the Coral“: “I have also identified the ships that cause it. Absolutely nothing has changed in these 15 years. I constantly monitor satellite images. For example, since June 15, a few days ago, there has been over 200 sq. km of pollution in the sea, which is visible on satellite images, this is only at one point in time, so imagine that this happens every single day“.
After an inspection by experts from the Maritime Administration, no pollution of the water surface was found. According to them, the black spots thrown out on the beaches are due to old pollution with oil products, which the waves have carried to the shore.
Position of the Ministry of Transport:
"The Maritime Administration – Burgas has examined the water surface and has not found the presence of current pollution. According to the experts, this is old pollution with oil products, which in rough seas are thrown onto the shore by the waves together with algae and other marine waste. Such conditions have been present in recent days. Concentrated spots and balls of fuel oil have been found in areas where sea waves reach the beach."
Simeon Tsvetkov, Chairman of the Association for the Development of Sea Beaches: “We appeal for immediate and strictest measures to be taken to control shipping. When something like this happens, it is a huge scourge for the entire tourism industry. A very big reputational stain on Bulgarian tourism, while at the same time the ship owners remain unpunished or with minimal penalties."
The tourism industry insists that ships that are found to be polluting should be restricted from entering the territorial waters of the Bulgarian sea.