The Black Sea in Peril: The Echoes of War Ripple Beyond Borders
Date: 29 February 2024
On the night of June 6, 2023, the Russian military blasted Ukraine's Nova Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant in a grotesque act of military desperation. The act classified as an "ecocide" has pushed the limits of the region's ecological resilience. The resulting surge of poisoned water unleashed an ecological catastrophe upon the Black Sea, already choking from wartime neglect. In an extraordinary collaboration, investigative journalists from six Black Sea countries – Ukraine, Georgia, Turkey, Romania, Moldova, and Bulgaria – have come together to measure the impact of the war on the already fragile ecosystem of the Black Sea and scrutinize how governments are responding to this new regional challenge.
Kakhovka Dam
Soon after the blast of the Kakhovka Dam, Ukraine hosted a conference with the help of local and international scientists to discuss the impact of the eco-terrorist act on the ecology and economy of the Northern Black Sea region. Experts agreed on one thing: the effect was devastating.
"Climate change in the affected area has been provoked due to an increase in open land areas and a decrease in the water surface area," says Marina Zakharova, an Institute of Soil Science and Agro-chemistry researcher.
Members of the International Working Group on the Environmental Consequences of the War have also visited Ukraine after the blast.
"Russia's invasion of Ukraine has demonstrated the gravity of crimes against the environment throughout the war," – said Vice President of the European Parliament, Heidi Gautala.
According to the professor of physical geography and a specialist in coastal research at the University of Bucharest, Alfred Vespremeanu, the destruction of the Ukrainian Nova Kakhovka dam produced an exceptional flood wave "that carried a lot of debris collected on its way to the Black Sea."
Fishermen's Plight: An Economic and Cultural Setback
The same story surfaces from Turkey's tight-knit fishing villages to the battered harbors of Ukraine: the sea that once promised prosperity now teems with danger.
Drifting mines maim vessels and livelihoods, turning fishing grounds into a deadly lottery.
"Everything is mined," – says Oleksandr Hromovyi, for whom fishing was the only source of income. Since February 24, 2022, Oleksandr's family, like many others in Black Sea countries, has been left without a single source of income.
In March 2022, just a month after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Turkish authorities issued a ban on all fishery activities in Kirklareli's coastal town of Igneada, located just five kilometers south of the Mutludere River, which forms Turkey's border with Bulgaria. That was the highest season for fishermen, and the ban lasted a month and a half.
"The ban has been lifted, but we're still afraid to seal on the sea in the dark because no way our vessels can survive if hit by a drifting mine," – Says Ibrahim Metin, the former head of the Igneada fishery cooperative.
That happened two times in Turkey: 1. On November 9, 2022, a fishing vessel hit a mine off the coast of Igneada, near Bulgaria, sustaining minor damage but the crew was safe; 2. On October 5, 2023, a Turkish-flagged general cargo ship hit a mine off the coast of Romania. This one also sustained minor damage with no injuries to the crew.
Dolphins' Demise
Following the war, tens of thousands of dolphins died in the Black Sea since dolphins are "susceptible to chemical and noise pollution."
According to the Head of the Scientific Department of the Tuzly Estuaries Nature Park, even two weeks before Russia's full-scale invasion, there were already a lot of Russian submarines and ships in that part of the Black Sea.
"They came very close at night, using sonar systems on submarines and warships that hit dolphins," – Says Rusev.
According to ecologists, active hostilities cause the most significant damage to marine organisms and the sea in general.
No data, no studies
The pollution of the Black Sea caused by Russia's war in Ukraine is a subject that scientists in the region have barely touched on. Despite the many attempts by the investigative teams from all the countries, they couldn't find any highly significant study or data that would demonstrate the war's effect on the whole region.
However, the Romanian team has obtained scientifically collected data on water quality in the Romanian sector of the Black Sea. These data are contained in the reports on the state of the marine and coastal environment in the Romanian sector of the Black Sea for 2021 and 2022 prepared by the National Institute for Marine Research and Development "Grigore Antipa" in Constanta. Comparative analysis of the two reports shows extraordinary differences in some parameters. Differences are so significant that they can only be explained by an exceptional event that affected the quality of Black Sea water. And Russia's war in Ukraine is the most probably that exceptional event.
Government Indifference and Non-Existent Regional Cooperation
"There's no strong political will to protect the Black Sea" – that's how Nesrin Algan, a political science professor specializing in urban, environmental, and local government, answered the question asked by our Turkish team.
In conclusion, the original working hypothesis of the investigation was confirmed – environmental policies of the Black Sea region states have generally been weak and lack clear objectives, which has contributed to the fragility of the Black Sea ecosystem and the regional cooperation in addressing environmental challenges, such as pollution, has been inadequate due to the absence of a systemic framework and coordinated efforts.
The ecological catastrophe described above needs regional joint coordination. However, such steps still needed to be taken. In 1992, Turkey, Romania, Ukraine, Georgia, and the Russian Federation signed the convention on the protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution. The document was ratified in 1994. The Black Sea commision’s objective is to prevent, reduce, and control the pollution in the Black Sea to protect and preserve the marine environment and provide a legal framework for cooperation and concerted actions to fulfill this obligation.
But this convention is not implemented. Only three people are working at the secretariat based in Istanbul, Turkey. Even the war in the Black Sea couldn't persuade the governments of Georgia, Romania, Moldova, Turkey, and Bulgaria to take further measures.
GEORGIA
Nino Ramishvili, Studio Monitori
The explosion of the Nova Kakhovka HPP caused concern in Georgia as well. Questions about the safety of bathing water have arisen among those wishing to relax at sea. Against this backdrop, the National Environment Agency announced that monitoring of the Black Sea water was activated and carried out once every 10 days at 12 stations. Prior to the incident, the agency sampled waters only from 9 stations, subsequently adding three more in the Anaklia-Ganmukhuri area. The agency claims to examine water based on 59 parameters, including on heavy metals, with the quality of water ascertained to be within norms.
“For examination, chemical parameters were established, including the concentration of 13 heavy metals, total petroleum hydrocarbons, 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and other physical and chemical parameters. The National Environmental Agency conducted seawater quality monitoring at 9 stations once every 10 days. On July 10, three sites in the Anaklia-Ganmukhuri territory were added. Samples are tested for 59 parameters. They are sent for testing to the National Environmental Agency’s accredited air, water, and soil testing laboratory equipped with high-precision analytical devices and meeting all modern requirements and standards.” This statement was posted by the agency once every 10 days throughout summer.
The lab where the National Environmental Agency sent samples is located in Tbilisi.
“It’s a matter of minutes, not even hours. You can deliver them to Tbilisi, but it will cost you. You must place them in a cooler right away, and as you travel the quality changes. So you’re not as quick. It should be done at least once in 2 weeks, if not every week, and samples must be taken from every beach and transported to Tbilisi,” environmental assessment expert Mamuka Gvilava says.
The Fisheries, Aquaculture, and Aquatic Biodiversity Department of the National Environment Agency is located in Batumi. However, the building is so depreciated that on-site laboratory tests are hardly carried out, only simple analyses. Nevertheless, it is important to check specific parameters on-site, environmentalists say.
The state has yet to equip a modern laboratory in the Black Sea region. And yet, as early as 2021, then Minister Levan Davitashvili and the leader of Adjara promised to build a Batumi branch of the National Environmental Agency to house labs with modern equipment: “Today we started building new infrastructure to allow to conduct important tests in a lab with state-of-the-art, modern equipment. Keeping the Black Sea’s ecosystem is a top priority and part of our obligations to the EU,” Levan Davitashvili said, though no office has been built yet.
The operating lab is located in the former military settlement near Batumi that has no water or sewage system. We visited the lab in September, with the building constructed but interior work on pause. The security onsite told us that the implementing company was waiting for additional machinery for installation work.
According to information from the National Environment Agency, the contractor company was unable to complete the works. Consequently, the task was reassigned to another company, and completion is anticipated by the end of spring.
The traces of hostilities carried out by Russia in Ukraine reached Georgia
On February 13, 2023, a sea mine exploded near the coast in Batumi. There were eyewitnesses, and video materials were posted in social media. According to information obtained from the Interior Ministry, it is a standalone case of a naval mine found in Georgia’s territorial waters since the start of the war in Ukraine. The Border Police has not found a mine of this kind, though several of them were neutralized in other Black Sea states. In January 2024, Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey officially announced the establishment of a group for clearing mines. The relevant memorandum between the three countries involves operating ships for clearing mines and the carrying our special measures together. We asked the Interior Ministry of Georgia about possible steps taken by authorities to locate and neutralize naval mines. In response, we were told that “bolstering the processes of visually monitoring the sea and informing ships engaged in marine activities has been set as a priority direction for the Coast Guard Department of the Border Police in the fulfillment of its tasks in the marine area. As part of preventive measures, greater coordination has been established among the ministry’s units and other entities engaged in maritime activities, also with the Maritime Transport Agency of Georgia, port administrations, and the private sector.” Also, the Navy Police has issued recommendations and security instructions to ship owners and fishing companies.
Warfare has a dramatic effect on marine life, and the noise generated by warships can even be fatal to them.
Natia Kopaliani, professor of the natural sciences and medical department of Ilia State University, and her team periodically monitor the population of dolphins in Georgia. According to her, the war in Ukraine has not forced large numbers of dolphins toward Georgia. Yes, there are individual instances, and the relevant information is being collected. Ilia State University’s scientists installed a device in two Black Sea cities which twice recorded a sound believed by specialists to belong to a submarine, in this way being a threat for dolphins.
“No large quantities of dolphins have been forced out. We continue monitoring them and analyzing acoustic data. We have underwater devices, four of them were given to us by a British university, but two of them were stolen. One of the recordings features sounds characteristic of submarines,” Natia Kopaliani tells us.
The Black Sea was the most polluted in Europe - a situation that existed before the war in Ukraine
The Black Sea is the most polluted in Europe. This is due to several factors, with the most important among them being that the Black Sea is one of the most enclosed seas in the world, on one hand, and that it is contaminated by a variety of pollutants carried by rivers. In addition, only the upper layer of the Black Sea is rich in oxygen, with the remaining 87% being a no-oxygen water level suffused with hydrogen sulfide. Studies from recent years show that the no-oxygen, hydrogen sulfide level has risen by 20-25 meters, while the oxygen level has decreased. Most of the marine life (dolphins, fish, etc.) live in the oxygen layer, and its decrease equals reducing their natural habitat.
In recent years, the EU has conducted numerous studies to identify and improve the Black Sea’s environmental situation. Under the EU/UNDP Project: Improving Environmental Monitoring in the Black Sea, several studies were carried out in Ukraine, Georgia, and Russia in 2016. As a result of joint studies from 2016, the presence of 2,100 pollutants and their concentrations were identified in the sea’s water, floor sediments, mollusks, and fish. These pollutants included priority pollutants identified by EU legislation that are mandatory for all EU member states to control, and that impact the qualitative indicators of seawater. Of these, some 145 substances were found in the Black Sea. The studies identified polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from marine transport in Georgia’s waters. The following chemical waste resulting from industrial processes was identified: bisphenol dibutyl phthalate and monobityls, which are the main ingredients of sunscreen. This substance with various concentrations hazardous for marine organisms was found along Georgia’s coast. Harmful organophosphorus compounds found in everyday commodities—such as textiles, furniture, computers, etc.—were discovered at every monitored station. Overall, the largest volumes were identified in the Danube and Dniester Delta and Georgia’s waters.
“The Danube washes down waste from all over Europe. Our country is small, though, and the Black Sea Basin rivers are not as big. The Rioni is the largest. If there is any organic contamination, it is because insufficient sewage systems. Imagine the numbers of hotels in the coastal area, and the volume of unfiltered substances flowing into the sea through the sewage system,” the head of Foundation Caucasus Environment, Manana Devidze, says and recalls the when the instance of coastal bloom in 2020, when vegetation invaded the coast of Poti.
“Aquatic plants multiplied drastically. It’s called eutrophication, a process linked to climate change and natural phenomena. But, if it is accompanied by anthropogenic impacts, meaning pollution caused by human beings, this intensifies eutrophication, and that’s what happened. The water was knee-high in a sizeable area. It happened for the first time 2 years ago, an alarming occurrence, because this is not normal. Add to that climate change, higher temperatures, and contaminated water inflows. So, this is what happened,” Manana Devidze says and adds that rivers and waters contaminated by sewage waste and then polluting the Black Sea is a major problem in the territory of Georgia.
To study this case, and to find out the level of the Black Sea’s contamination, the National Environmental Agency collected samples, though never published the results of examination. Environmentalist specialists were unable to learn from the state agency what the samples revealed either.
In recent years, water purifying facilities have been built and set in motion in Georgia’s coastline cities, with the exception of Poti, where the rehabilitation of the sewage system and the construction of purifying facilities were supposed to be finalized in 2016 and 2020, respectively. The initial cost of the project was 130 million GEL. The agreement with the tender-winning company was terminated due to failure duly to perform the contractual obligations a few months after signing, and in 2018 a new tender with an increased budget of 133 million GEL was announced. But the new winner too failed to complete the project in time, and another tender was announced in 2022. The Poti sewage rehabilitation and the construction of a purifying facility remain unfinished in 2024.
Mamuka Gvilava has been representing Georgia in environmental projects by various international organizations and foundations for years. Presently, he is involved in the DOORS BLEAK SEA project funded by the European Commission and seeking to protect the Black Sea and financed. Under the project, a portal and a map were created to include Black Sea data by country. The portal is under construction. Satellite data reflect temperatures in concrete Black Sea areas from different times, also contaminator levels.
“A portal was created to upload various data about the Black Sea. We were asked if we had the relevant data. The National Environmental Agency seemed to have made measurements from when the Poti coastal bloom took place, but no one knows where exactly those measurements were taken. We requested information, but to no avail. And, though this blooming area is not poisonous now, it may become dangerous tomorrow, so it’s better to publish a transparent report on time. Chlorophyll maps are one of the indicators of eutrophication in that they show whether or not the sea is blooming,” Mamuka Gvilava says. He agrees with other specialists who believe that no adequate microbiological study of the Black Sea is being carried out in Georgia.
The Association Agreement obligates Georgia to align with the relevant EU directive, including the development of a marine strategy, assessing the quality of seawater, defining an acceptable water status, and developing environmental goals and indicators.
In 2021, international experts, with support from UNDP and Sweden, developed a proposal on Black Sea monitoring for Georgia, based on which a monitoring program for Georgia was expected to be drawn up. Apparently, Georgia’s Ministry of Environmental Protection has yet to develop a monitoring program. Mamuka Gvilava says that a European expert has worked on Georgia’s marine strategy and even produced a 100-page document, though the Georgian Government is not approving it.
“The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) is designed for countries to develop marine strategies, and there are 11 directions in which studies must be conducted. A strategy was developed for us by a top-notch expert in 2019. We signed the Association Agreement in 2014, so must fulfil the MSFD by developing an environmental strategy, but they just refuse to approve it. A very compact 100-page document was developed in line with the situation in Georgia. The document concludes that we are conducting measuring activities just in 2-3 directions of the 11.”
This story was produced by the Investigative Media Lab with funding from Journalism Fund Europe.
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