Oil spill bird death toll 'not as bad as first feared'

A leading Russian environmentalist today disputed claims that more than 30,000 birds have died in an oil spill.

Around 560,000 gallons of fuel oil have leaked from a tanker that was split apart by a storm on Sunday in the Kerch Strait that connects the Black and Azov seas.

A regional governor said a day after the disaster that more than 30,000 birds had died.

But Viktor Zubakin, president of the Russian Bird Conservation Union, said today: "We're talking about the death of thousands, not tens of thousands of birds."

Hundreds of soldiers continued to clean up the oil spill, lifting heavy clumps of seaweed and sand caked with oil, and tons of oil-absorbing chemicals have been delivered to the area, Russian news agencies reported.

Despite reducing the bird death toll, Zubakin warned that "this disaster is only the first call" of danger, and that if a similar-magnitude oil spill were to hit sensitive bird habitats in Russia's north, "the consequences will be much worse".

He said Russia's largest oil deposits were often located in areas where birds breed and hibernate, including the Volga delta, the Caspian and the Barents seas, and near the Pacific island of Sakhalin.

Other environmentalists called for tougher rules on environmental damage and impose strict control on oil tankers and other vessels that transport oil. The tanker that sank was designed for river use and not to withstand high-seas.