Image Resembling Large Slick Spotted In Caspian Sea

An image of a slick covering more than 80 square kilometers has been detected in the Caspian Sea — roughly the size of the city of Aqtau, Orda.kz reports.

The first reports appeared on the Telegram channel Transparent World in the Caspian Sea.

A spot with an area of 82.51 square kilometers was detected on the radar image of the Sentinel-1A satellite in the Kazakh and Azerbaijani sectors, along the shipping route of the Quryq-Baku port, the message says.

The Department of Ecology of the Mangystau Region said the pollution site lies outside Kazakhstan’s jurisdiction.

Officials denied it was an oil spill, suggesting it could be oil residue or fishing waste.

According to the coordinates, the specified location is located at a distance of approximately 61 nautical miles (approximately 113 km) from the nearest coastline of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The specified area is part of international sea routes and may affect the waters of neighboring states, the department clarified.

The Department of Emergency Situations added that such phenomena are regularly recorded on satellite images, noting that since the beginning of this year alone, about 50 slicks have been spotted in the northern Caspian.

In most cases, the slicks are elongated along ship routes, which is typical for the discharge of ship waters during the movement of the vessel. The chemical composition of such slicks is not established, there is no confirmed data on oil pollution. All observations are in the nature of a visual analysis of satellite data,explained the Department of Emergency Situations of the Mangystau region.

Experts say ships often dump waste or dirty liquids in neutral waters of the Caspian to avoid liability.

For a more detailed investigation, Kazakhstan Gharysh Sapary has been tasked with monitoring the water in cooperation with international space organizations.

Original Author: Dinara Bekbolayeva