Hereon researchers model oil slick in the Black Sea
International team of scientists uses computer models on behalf of Bulgaria
Two ships laden with heavy oil crashed off the Crimean Peninsula in the Black Sea in mid-December 2024. The Bulgarian Ministry of Environment and Waters asked Prof Emil Stanev from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon to predict the spread of the oil slick. Stanev was quickly able to give the all-clear locally: his simulations showed that the oil would not reach Bulgaria in the short term. They were subsequently verified with real data. The study shows how successful scientifically based warning systems can be in case of marine environmental disasters.
On December 15, 2024, a storm with wind force 8 raged across the Kerch Strait, which connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov between the Crimean Peninsula and the Taman Peninsula. The oil tankers Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239 got into sea distress there. One broke in two, the other ran aground. Both lost thousands of tons of oil. At the request of the Bulgarian Ministry of Environment and Waters, Prof Dr Stanev immediately made calculations. He formed a team at Hereon with Dr Joanna Staneva, Dr Marcel Ricker and Dr Bughsin Djath.
Prof Dr Stanev works at the Hereon Institute of Coastal Systems – Analysis and Modeling and at the University of Sofia “St. Kliment of Ohrid” in Bulgaria. He obtained additional support from Violeta Slabakova and Dr Ivelina Zlateva from the Institute of Oceanology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IO-BAS). Hereon and IO-BAS are already working together in the Helmholtz partnering project “SEA-ReCap” and in the EU project “DOORS” under the leadership of Joanna Staneva. They are developing warning systems for marine environmental disasters. (Source: Hereon News)
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