Volunteers clean a section of the Black Sea on November 13, some 210 km from Krasnodar, Russia. A ferocious storm hit the Black Sea on November 11, sinking five ships in the Kerch Strait connecting the Black and Azov seas, including an oil tanker. Three sailors had been

confirmed dead in the accident as of November 14.

Hundreds of Russian soldiers were deployed to remove an oil spill estimated at 2,000 tons. The Russian Emergency Agency warned of "an environmental catastrophe" because the 12-km-long

coastline had been heavily polluted by oil leak, resulting in the death of 30,000 sea birds.

According to Russian officials, the coastline of the Kerch Strait and the strait itself will need

10 to 15 years to regenerate.

Below: A poisoned bird drenched in thick coatings of oil shows its distress