Ecologists considered the damage to the Black Sea from the fire on the tanker near Sochi to be minor.

A trail of over 20 km follows the Aframax Rio tanker, which is being towed after a fire. There are currently no spills on the shores, and the oil tanks are likely undamaged, ecologists noted.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot", the beaches in Sochi and the federal territory of "Sirius" have resumed operations. According to monitoring data, no sea pollution has been recorded after the fire on the Aframax Rio oil tanker, authorities reported.

According to satellite imagery from Planet on October 8 at 11:20 AM MSK, a towed vessel is observed in the Black Sea waters 23 km west of Tuapse, presumably the Aframax Rio tanker, which was attacked earlier near Sochi. An irregular narrow trail of over 20 km, likely containing oil products, extends behind the vessel. Judging by the orientation of the tanker and the accompanying vessels, the towing is being conducted in a northwestern direction, reported the Sky Eye project on the evening of October 8.

Volunteers saw the towing of the tanker, wrote ecologist Roman Pukalov, director of environmental programs for the organization "Green Patrol", in his Telegram channel. "There are no traces of oil products on the shores yet," the ecologist noted, adding that the tanker now needs to be safely towed to port and the oil pumped out.

"I believe that both we and the Black Sea are very lucky: we have so far suffered minimal damage," he said.

"100,000 tons of oil in the burning tanker on October 6 near the shores of Sochi is a very serious threat. If all the compartments (tanks) of this vessel had been breached, the tanker would still be burning, and it would be burning tomorrow too. The fire was no longer visible yesterday morning," he wrote on October 8.

At the same time, air pollution in the evening and night of October 6 did occur, but "nature helped": soot mainly fell far out to sea, not in the resort villages, the ecologist noted.

"What sinks in the dead aggressive hydrogen sulfide layer (which in the Black Sea starts at depths of about 150–200 meters and goes to the bottom) will disappear there forever. Soot and unburned oil products may still wash ashore with a change in wind direction. The threat remains. Although it is more likely that the main Black Sea current will gradually carry it out to open sea."

Ecologist Georgy Kavanoyan agreed with him.

"The tanks in the tanker are apparently undamaged. There are no traces of oil," he commented in his Telegram channel.

Recall that the Aframax Rio tanker was sailing under the flag of Liberia with a cargo of crude oil from Novorossiysk to India and, according to sources, was almost fully loaded. Due to the intense burning of the oil, rescue vessels initially could not safely approach the tanker. Ecologist Georgy Kavanoyan pointed out that the Aframax Rio has a carrying capacity of 107,000 tons, while the carrying capacity of the tankers "Volgoneft" that sank in the Kerch Strait was up to five thousand tons each. In his assessment, a significant portion of the oil could have burned during the fire, but there remained a risk of a large amount of oil entering the sea.