Thousands of Russians have volunteered to clean Black Sea beaches and save local wildlife following a disastrous oil spill. Here’s what workers are saying.

It’s been roughly two weeks since a storm in the Kerch Strait wrecked two oil tankers, killing one crewman and leaking thousands of metric tons of oil into the Black Sea. Since that disaster on December 15, volunteers have rushed to beaches to help with cleanup efforts, collecting spilled fuel, working in field kitchens, catching and cleaning birds, and even rescuing dolphins. The independent journalists’ cooperative Bereg spoke with some of the volunteers assisting in this emergency response and learned how others are helping both online and offline. Meduza is republishing this report in English.

‘We didn’t see anybody from city services — just volunteers’

Nadezhda, entrepreneur

Working in a mask with a respirator was tough, but it’s dangerous without it. Though I did see a lot of men on the beach disregarding their protective gear, even though oil-fuel is a highly carcinogenic substance. Many of them worked in their ordinary clothes. The sand was mixed everywhere with oil. People were shoveling it into bags, but really the road graders were supposed to come collect it all.

I’m originally from Belarus, but I’ve been living in Crimea for the past four years. As soon as my friend and I saw what happened in Anapa, we immediately decided to go and help. I work with herbal medicine and make natural cosmetics, so I’m self-employed and didn’t have to get time off work.

So far in Kerch, oil hasn’t been washing ashore like in Anapa [so we decided to head to the Kuban]. We left on Monday, December 23. My friend has a house near the center of Anapa, and we stayed there. That first evening, we went to the cleanup headquarters, where they gave us all our equipment: protective suits and respirators.

On the first day, on Tuesday, we set out to help birds caught in the oil. We wanted to volunteer to clean them off, but they told us they didn’t need extra help. So, we went looking for injured birds ourselves. We found a few in the water, but it was unclear how to catch them and how badly they were contaminated. I know people who catch them at night using nets, blinding them with flashlights.

Afterward, we went to clean up a beach in the town of Vityazevo [15 kilometers, about nine miles, from central Anapa]. When I got there, I saw bags and bags packed with oil. A coordinator met us and showed us where we could work. There were more than 100 volunteers on the beach then.

I witnessed how disorganized the cleanup officials are. I get that they don’t have prior experience with this sort of thing, but generally, I think the country does have experience with cleaning up large-scale disasters. The state just needs to take the initiative and make sure everything is cleaned up logically — not in the chaotic way it’s happening now.

Right now, people are collecting contaminated sand and moving it in bags from one place, where it poisons the soil, to another, where it still poisons the soil. For example, in Voskresenskaya, trucks just dumped bags outside town, not far from people’s homes. I also read that they dumped bags near the town of Primorsky, leaving them near the Tamano-Zaporozhsky Nature Reserve, where different kinds of birds spend the winter.

Everything has been pretty chaotic. I get that cleanup needs to happen, but it should happen on properly prepared sites. You need to ensure that there’s no additional environmental harm. I really hope the authorities find a solution. Unfortunately, right now, it all feels somewhat futile.

On the first day, we worked for two hours, and then I started getting this unpleasant feeling when breathing through my nose. The respirators need new filters every five hours or so, but the crew there didn’t have any more filters, so they just gave me a new respirator. Of course, that generates a huge amount of waste, which is just another problem that nobody talks about.

On Wednesday, I spent another day working on the beach at 13 Pionersky Avenue. There was an emergency response headquarters there where you could warm up and drink some tea. Official responders were already busy here, and there weren’t many volunteers, even though the sea had washed up several new oil slicks. Afterward, I went home.

In Vityazevo, we saw only volunteers — no city emergency services. All the volunteers were welcoming and kind; we’d come together for a common cause. A lot of people showed up, both locals and folks from all over.

Some friends saw what we were doing and decided to join in. (We’d posted on social media that we had a house where people could stay, so anyone who wanted to could join us.)

‘You can feel the compassion, and it’s wonderful.’

Ekaterina (name changed), ornithologist

I learned about the disaster through social media, and the scale of the environmental tragedy really hit me. I came to help on December 24 and am now at a wildlife rehabilitation center.

When the tragedy happened, the center immediately started taking in birds from Anapa. There’s an enormous number of people working here now. You can feel the compassion, and it’s wonderful.

We’re getting birds in from the Anapa coastline that have already been caught, cleaned up, and given some first aid. But, of course, their condition varies. For example, we got several dozen birds last night [on December 24]. When sorting them, we have to assign each bird an individual number. We stick a label on each one to identify them later. Then, we weigh them, examine them, and give them sorbents [materials that absorb or adhere to liquids like oil and oily waste products].

If necessary, we send them to the clinic, where a veterinarian takes over to determine the best course of action. Many birds will require rehabilitation because they may have suffered poisoning, burns, or stress.

People worry about what will happen to these birds. Our job right now is to take them in and provide first aid. What happens next depends on the environmental situation. Even if the birds are healthy, we can’t return them to the wild if they’ll only end up flying back into the oil.

Also, with many of these birds, there’s damage to the fatty layer coating their feathers. This layer prevents them from getting wet and freezing when they dive. If we release them now, they’ll freeze. Of course, many can’t fly properly anyway and would just die [if we let them go now]. We may need to wait until spring when the birds molt and grow new feathers.

‘I don’t want to do work that ends up being useless’

Inna (name changed), brand designer

When [the disaster] started showing up in blogs and its scale became clear, my friends and I in Krasnodar immediately mobilized ourselves [and went to Anapa]. We went last Friday, December 20, for a day trip. But it worked out great because a lot of my friends saw my stories online and decided to come, too. There was a ripple effect.

We joined the “Oil Spill in the Black Sea” Telegram group chat and decided to go help at Dzhemete beach [seven kilometers (about four miles) from central Anapa]. Before leaving, we collected some money and bought supplies: bags, respirators, gloves, and shovels. But we didn’t need it, it turned out, because everything was provided on-site. The whole thing was well-organized. People really came together, and some even offered free accommodations, while others brought homemade food [to the beach].

They handed us shovels, protective suits, and respirators when we arrived. Then, they assigned us to a section of the beach, and we joined other volunteers and got working.

Shoveling and carrying sand is very hard, physically demanding work. On top of that, after you’ve cleaned everything, the waves can wash up a bunch more oil as soon as you’re done. It’s really disheartening because so much effort goes into the cleanup.

When we got to the beach, there were no emergency service workers. Later, we saw officials giving interviews in front of the volunteers at work, which was very frustrating. They could have at least had the decency to pick up a shovel and help us.

There were a lot of schoolchildren and college students at the cleanup, though they’d obviously been dragged there. They were helping just for show. What was missing was someone who could inspire and organize them and convey the importance of why we were doing all this.

After the beach, we went to help wash the birds. The two of us spent two hours on a single bird. That work isn’t for the fainthearted because you’re holding a living creature that could die right in your hands after so much poking and prodding. First, you have to treat the bird with starch, then degrease its feathers, and then you wash it with “Fairy” [detergent]. At the same time, the birds try to clean their feathers themselves, and you have to distract them.

Afterward, we didn’t take any activated charcoal tablets because we didn’t know about them, and we experienced some toxic exposure. By evening, we had headaches and nausea. We went home, looked up some remedies, found out about the tablets, and took some. Our friends who went after us took the activated charcoal and some Polysorb tablets right away and felt fine.

We’re planning to go to Anapa again on Sunday. After that, we’ll see how it goes because we don’t want to do work that ends up being useless. Volunteers have already cleaned up the large oil patches, but small ones remain.

Meduza readers who want to help the Black Sea cleanup effort can donate money to organizations involved on the ground:

• Funds are being collected by organizations helping dolphins (at least 21 had been killed as of December 27) — such as the Delpha and Serene Sea centers — and birds, like the Pelican Wild Bird Rehabilitation Center. You can also contribute to the weekly shoreline inspections of nature reserves via the Nature and People Foundation. Additionally, blogger Alexey Sibirsky is organizing a fundraiser to pay for tractors, trucks, and food for volunteers.