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secondA few years ago, Kamchatka was mainly famous for its spectacularity: volcanoes, octopuses, king crabs. The latter are also known as Kamchatka crabs, they are delicate and expensive. The peninsula in Russia’s Far East, whose regional capital Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky can be reached in eight and a half hours by plane from Moscow, is now considered a new, rugged and exotic vacation spot after half a century as a restricted military area. . Meanwhile, Kamchatka, whose area is slightly larger than Germany’s, also attracts surfers. They were the first to draw attention to what the environmental protection organization Greenpeace calls an “ecological catastrophe.”
These are parts of Avacha Bay in southeast Kamchatka and especially about 30 kilometers from Chalaktyrskij Beach, which is covered in black volcanic sand and popular with surfers. Three weeks ago, after being in the water, their eyes hurt, their eyesight deteriorated, and there was also a sore throat, nausea, and fever. Then more and more dead aquatic animals were washed ashore, fish, octopuses, sea urchins, crabs. His videos sadden and anger more and more Russian netizens. Among other things, video blogger Jurij Dud made his audience of millions aware of the pollution over the weekend and emphasized complaints from surfers describing the water as sticky and bitter. The region’s Environment Ministry released a video on Saturday showing Chalaktyrskij beach: “The color of the water is normal, the smell of the air is normal, the beach is perfectly clean.”
But shortly after, the ministry admitted the contamination of various parts of Avacha Bay: according to preliminary results, the permissible values of petroleum products were exceeded by a factor of 3.6 and those of phenols by a factor of 2.5. It was not clear how this happened. Sometimes a leak or discharge from a passing ship is assumed. Others suspect that the starting point was a military site where toxic substances were stored; It is located on the banks of the Nalycheva River, which flows into the bay and, according to aerial photographs, could be the source of contamination. Criminal investigations have been ongoing since the weekend. According to authorities, nine people sought medical help due to chemical burns.
The region’s governor, Vladimir Solodov, warned against visiting the beach and threatened to fire officials who try to overlook or cover up the situation. “In general, the situation is normalizing thanks to the unique ability of the ocean to regenerate,” wrote Solodow himself on Instagram. On Monday, the governor presented three possible causes. First, he named a “technogenic contamination associated with human activity” that released toxic substances that have yet to be determined. But Solodow did not want to rule out natural causes either: the “behavior” of algae washed ashore during a storm, or the “seismic activity associated with volcanic phenomena.” Professionals rule out a natural cause.
