According to scientists, in some areas it is better to let oil products degrade on their own, because people's attempts to eliminate the consequences will cause even more harm to ecosystems.

As a result of the oil spill in December 2024, about three thousand tons of heavy heating oil entered the Black Sea, which led to contamination of more than 150 km of the coastline.

The scientific team of the Southern Federal University analyzed this and similar cases to create a predictive empirical and statistical model capable of predicting how long it will take to clean the water area without human intervention. Information on the climatic, hydrological, hydrochemical, and geomorphological conditions of the coasts under consideration, which are publicly available, is used for the calculation.

Andrey Kuznetsov, Director of the Institute of Earth Sciences, explained that the use of the model makes it possible to map, firstly, areas of the coast that have a low ability to self-clean and therefore require priority human protection, and secondly, areas where natural self-cleaning mechanisms work quite efficiently, ensuring the destruction of droplets and fuel oil aggregates up to 3 mm for 3-5 years, therefore, with small remaining traces of contamination, human intervention is not necessary.

"It is important to understand that not only the fuel oil spill itself, but also the coastal cleanup work can harm the environment, and the spill has obviously already dealt its main blow to the Anapa Embankment, and over time the danger of its echoes to the ecosystem will decrease. Currently, when deciding whether to use certain technologies, forces and means to clean up polluted coasts, it is necessary to take into account the risks of provoking additional environmental damage not directly related to the spill. There are many such examples in the world history of oil spill control," said Andrey Kuznetsov.

For example, the removal of a huge amount of sand from the coast, tens of times the amount of spilled fuel oil, as well as regular plowing and sifting of the beach, treating the shore with chemical reagents and biological preparations in some areas of the Anapa embankment in an attempt to get rid of even the smallest traces of fuel oil as soon as possible, can severely disrupt the functioning of this unique natural complex, intensify the destruction of dunes and coastal erosion by the sea.

"In this regard, it is important to correlate the effectiveness of applied technical solutions with the activity of natural self—cleaning mechanisms and to avoid causing even more damage to the coast than the fuel oil spill itself," Andrey Kuznetsov emphasized once again.

Andrey Nikolaevich presented these arguments, as well as the results of the study, in his report "Assessment and mapping of the ability of sea coasts to self-clean to optimize plans and work to prevent and eliminate the consequences of accidental oil and petroleum product spills" during the satellite event of the V Congress of Young Scientists in Anapa, which allowed consolidating the efforts of science, business and government. in the fight against the consequences of the emergency situation that affected the federal resort of Anapa and adjacent sections of the coasts of the Black and Azov Seas.

Besides the director of the Institute, the SFedU delegation was represented by associate professors of the Department of Physical Geography, Ecology and Nature Conservation Alina Zimovets and Asya Hovsepyan and graduate student Konstantin Dergachev.

SFedU scientists have formulated a proposal to include in the state environmental monitoring program, along with the traditionally studied media — air, water, and sediments — separate assessments of the pollution level of the coastal zone.

The participants of the Anapa satellite event were divided into four project groups: "A set of measures and promising solutions to eliminate the consequences of a fuel oil spill in the marine area", "A set of measures and promising solutions to eliminate the consequences of a fuel oil spill on land", "Technical means and a system for monitoring the effects of a fuel oil spill on marine and terrestrial ecosystems", "Development of environmental education in the interests of technological leadership." For two days, these groups worked out specific proposals for solving the tasks assigned to them based on their own research and development.

Following the results of the work, the Sea Group presented a comprehensive methodology for detecting lenses at the bottom of the Black Sea and eliminating pollution using chemical, biological and mechanized methods. The Susha Group proposed to combine all existing methods of soil purification: mechanical sand cleaning, washing and sorption, fine cleaning and bioremediation. The Monitoring Group has developed a solution for monitoring the effects of an oil spill on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, including using remote technologies. We worked in the Environmental Education group," said Alina Zimovets.

According to the scientist, the process of greening should be integrated into the education system at all levels, starting with primary and secondary school education and ending with professional development programs in the workplace. It was proposed to create a National Center in the Krasnodar Territory, the purpose of which would be to accumulate advanced technologies for cleaning up pollution of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and train "rapid response volunteers" to eliminate the consequences of an oil spill, train environmental engineers and popularize environmental knowledge among the general population of different ages.

"An online museum is planned on the basis of the Center, the exposition of which will focus on the comprehensive analysis and documentation of disasters caused by oil spills. This Museum will become an important scientific and educational resource, allowing a comprehensive study of the environmental, economic and social consequences of such incidents. The exhibition will include both documentary materials and interactive elements, which will ensure a deep immersion of visitors into the issues," Asya Hovsepyan shared.

The results of the collective work were presented at the final meeting. Field trips were organized for all participants to test technologies for cleaning beaches contaminated with fuel oil. Before and after the event, employees of the SFU Institute of Earth Sciences also managed to travel along the coasts of the Azov and Black Seas, conduct observations and take samples to assess the level of pollution six months after the fuel oil spill.