NGOs Request Access to Chushka Spit From Federal Security Service

Feature story - 22 November, 2007
November 22, 2007. Moscow. Greenpeace Russia, WWF Russia and the Russian Bird Conservation Union today asked the Head of the Federal Security Service (FSS) Nikolai Patrushev to give their teams access to the Southern part of Chushka Spit to help in clean-up works. The access to the Spit was restricted Sunday by the Krasnodar Region FSS Department.

11 Greenpeace volunteers on the spot are helping to clean-up the coastline, monitoring the polluted areas, reporting about new polluted spots

Currently the southern part of the spit is considered to be one of the most polluted areas suffering from the oil spill in the Kerch Strait.

The spit tip is ecologically valuable. It is an important migration route for large amount of migrant birds including rare and endangered species recorded in the Red Book of Russia. Thousands of affected birds have already suffered from the oil poisoning and the number of dying birds can grow further if the shore and water will not be cleaned from the oil products quickly, ornithologists warned.

To assess the oil spill impact and develop effective bird-rescue strategy NGOs repeatedly tried to get entry to Chushka Spit but were turned away. According to the crisis centre officials, the access was restricted by the Krasnodar Region FSS Department.

The NGOs ask the FSS head to support the clean-up efforts of their volunteer teams at the southern part of Chushka Spit to prevent further mass death of birds.