Finland defends shores against oil spill risk

On a lush island in the Gulf of Finland, workers are toiling to protect the coastline from oil-spills -- a risk heightened by Russian shadow fleet shipments and Ukrainian drone attacks.

Special bolts were drilled in the ancient cliffs off the city of Kotka, less then a hundred kilometres (62 miles) from the Russian border, on one of thousands of islands scattered along Finland's Baltic coastline.

They will create a permanent attachment system for oil containment booms, which can be installed in the event of a spill, to help prevent the oil from reaching the shoreline and its sensitive ecosystems.

The aim is to "save time and money and natusre", said Ulla Rosenstrom, Marine Environment Director of the John Nurminen Foundation, which runs the project along with the Finnish authorities.

The narrow, shallow Gulf of Finland provides a key route for Russian oil exports, which have continued despite Western sanctions following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Russia's use of its "shadow fleet" of unregulated, often ageing vessels to dodge the sanctions has raised fears of an oil spill in the region.

Jukka-Pekka Lumilahti, Director of Rescue Services at the Gulf of Finland Coastguard and head of Maritime Environmental Protection in the Kotka district, warned the risk of an oil spill accident was "very high at the moment".

"Between five and ten of these big crude oil tankers" are on the move every day, loaded with around 100,000 cubic metres of crude oil each, he said.

Recent drone attacks by Ukraine on the Russian oil ports of Primorsk and Ust-Luga, at the far end of the Gulf of Finland, have further increased the risk of "a big oil catastrophe", Lumilahti added.

"We have several close calls per month."

A big spill would have devastating effects on marine and coastal ecosystems, Rosenstrom said, standing on the cliffs of the island, with the sea stretching out behind her.

"It will be terrible for some of the birds, seabirds that are nesting here that are quite endangered."

Below the surface of the water, species such as green-brown bladderwrack seaweed provide vital functions for other wildlife.

If these were suffocated by crude oil, "the consequences can be enormous to all species," Rosenstrom added.

Workers will install 350 bolts for containment booms in the east of the gulf.

Rosenstrom said the plan was eventually to cover all of the country's southern coast, as "the whole of Gulf of Finland is actually in danger".

ank/rlp/