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Rescue teams are searching for at least five seamen missing after a powerful storm hit the Kerch Strait between Russia and the Ukraine, but with a new storm on its way, officials say hopes of finding them alive are fading.

The bodies of three sailors, still in life jackets, were washed ashore on Monday close to the island of Tuzla near the Kerch Strait, the maritime border between Russia and Ukraine.

Thirty-six other crew members were rescued from the shipwrecks on Sunday.

At the same time, a big operation, including the deployment of hundreds of Russian soldiers, has also begun to clean up the oil spill in the Kerch Strait, caused by a tanker which was torn apart in the storm. It was carrying 4,000 tonnes of fuel oil.

A total of ten ships, including oil tanker Volganeft-139, sank or were run aground during the storm, battered by waves of up to 18 feet.

Five-metre high waves broke apart the Volgoneft-139, on Sunday, causing some 2,000 tonnes of fuel oil to spill into the Kerch Strait, a waterway linking the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov. The spill from the oil tanker was seen as potentially the worst environmental disaster in the region in recent years. It prompted criticism that many Russian tankers aren’t seaworthy. Tens of thousands of oil-slicked seabirds and globules of heavy oil dotted the shoreline, a day after at least 10 ships, including a small oil tanker, sank or broke apart in a fierce storm, Russian officials said.

The World Wide Fund for Nature, a conservation group, said the heavy fuel oil also settled onto the seabed, surely destroying marine habitat and killing fish.

Three Russian ships laden with sulphur sank in or near the port on Sunday and workers on Monday pumped fuel oil out of a tanker that suffered two cracks in the hull but was not believed to have leaked, officials said.

Eight crewmembers of the sunken dry cargo ship, the Volnogorsk, have been rescued from a life raft in the Kerch Strait and taken to Tuzla Spit, a spokesman for the Krasnodar territorial emergency situations center has reported. The Volnogorsk, carrying over 2,000 tonnes of sulfur, sank off Port Kavkaz at 10:25 a.m., Moscow time, on Sunday, the Southern Regional Emergency Situations Center earlier told Interfax. The crew boarded the life raft. Tugboats were dispatched to the disaster area. sd

The dry cargo ship, the Nakhichevan, with 11 crew aboard, also sank the Strait of Kerch - a third disaster during that day, the emergency headquarters at the Port of Kavkaz informed Interfax.

The Volganeft 123 tanker had a crack.

The Russian-owned Kovel, carrying sulphur, sank after hitting another Russian cargo ship, the Volnogorsk, which also sunk in the five-metre high waves and raging winds.

The Dika barge carrying two crewmembers and about 4,500 tonnes of fuel oil ran aground in the southwestern part of the Tuzla Spit. It broke off from a towboat during the gale.

The Demetra floating crane carrying one person drifted to the Tuzla Spit.

The Russian-owned Vera Voloshina, carrying farming machines from Romania to Russia, ran aground near the Crimean resort of Sudak.

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An international team of experts began the preliminary work of salvaging oil from the sunken Eritrean vessel, DenDen.

The ship, carrying a huge quantity of furnace oil, ran aground off Tannirbhavi coast near here on June 23 following engine seizure, and capsized. Three members of the crew were killed while 21 escaped to safely.

According to the New Mangalore Port Trust sources, experts conducted a survey around the ship to identify the point of penetration into the vessel. The hull or the body of the ship needs to be punctured in order to salvage the oil.

The team also conducted tests to determine the deepest channel for the tug to approach the sunken vessel. The offshore supply West Asian vessel, “Al Hamal”, which will salvage the oil, was yet to reach the port till Monday evening. The tug will go alongside the vessel with men and equipment to start the salvage operation.

The tug will load the oil from the sunken ship on to itself using the hot-tap method, arrive at the port and empty it into trucks. Any non-persistent oil, such as petrol and diesel, on board the vessel would have dissipated by now. The main concern of the team will be to remove the furnace oil safely, the sources said.

source: Bellevision Global

These movies really put things in perspective. Höegh Autoliners‘ car carrier ‘Höegh Transporter’ being towed in the Bay of Santander.