TALLINN - Pollution fighting ships swarmed the Bay of Tallinn on March 17 after the Estonian Border Guard detected large amounts of shore-bound oil floating in from the Gulf of Finland. The pollution is believed to have originated from the Dominica-flagged freighter that sank in the gulf earlier this month.
Spokesperson Helena Loorents told the Baltic News Service that, according to provisional reports, oil slicks had been detected 2.5 kilometers from the Miidurand shore in the Bay of Tallinn and one kilometer from shore in the neighboring Bay of Kopli.
Immediately after the pollution was detected, Finland dispatched a team of clean-up ships and the Estonian Border Guard sent its aircraft to monitor the area.
By the evening of March 17, approximately 300 liters of oil off the north Estonian coast had been collected, a border guard spokesperson reported, adding that this was only a small amount. The Finnish boats Seili, Hylje and Halli continued to work through the night.
The bay's oil-soaked icecap exacerbated the problem, as the Finish ships' equipment was only designed to work in water. Estonia's clean-up vessel, the EVA-316, possessed similar equipment.
The Finnish Institute of Environment both initiated and agreed to fund the clean-up project. If Estonia had sought help from Finland, it would have had to cover the related costs, officials said.
During a monitoring flight on March 15, Finland's Dornier aircraft detected a major area of pollution 16 kilometers northwest of the Juminda peninsula. A life jacket was also found, spokespeople for the Border Guar reported. A second slick was spotted nine kilometers north of Keri Island.
The cause is believed to be a Dominica-flagged cargo ship, the Runner 4, which sank in Estonia's territorial waters on March 6. A drifting oil slick was detected near the site of the accident.
Five days later, the border guard spotted two more slicks off the Parispea peninsula. In addition, rescue rafts and an emergency buoy from the Runner 4 were found in the area. The pollution was located 42 kilometers from where the freighter sank.
Results of samples collected at the sites for analysis show that the oil slicks near Vaindloo Island and Parispea peninsula were similar in composition.
"A model of currents and the movement of ice allows us to make a 36-hour forecast of the drifting pollution. According to the prognosis, the northeast shore of Prangli Island could be under threat. It cannot be ruled out that the pollution will reach the shores of Naissaar as well," senior researcher Urmas Raudsepp said at the time.
He added, however, that this forecast was not 100 percent accurate, and that the oil's movement could vary. "But agencies should be on full alert for such an eventuality," Raudsepp said.
Over the past two months, the Bay of Tallinn has been tarnished by a record-amount of oil pollution, becoming Estonia's biggest environmental disaster.
A previous spill, detected on Jan. 30, ultimately killed 35,000 birds and blackened Estonia's northwest coastline. The government was heavily castigated for its incompetence in handling the mess, and Environmental Minister Villu Reiljan nearly lost his job as a result.
Experts claim the gulf's increase in plying traffic is the main cause for tanker crashes and, unless monitoring efforts are made, could continue to pose a serious environmental threat to the area.
