OIL PRODUCTS POLLUTION OF THE AVACHA BAY COASTAL AREAS (AVACHINSKY GULF)

A retrospective analysis of studies of the ecological state of the Avacha Bay in the period from 1999 to 2024 based on data from 114 open-source publications and official annual reports is presented. It has been established that long-term pollution monitoring covers exclusively chemical analysis of water for the content of oil products, phenols, metals, anionic surfactants (surfactants), suspended and biogenic substances (in 56.8% of all studies). In other components of the environment, pollutants are rarely and unsystematically observed within the framework of initiative studies, while in bottom sediments only the content of oil products and solid metals is monitored (in 15.9% of publications), the latter pollutants are also determined in aquatic organisms (in 27.3% of publications). As a rule, in the coastal ecosystems of the Avacha Bay, these are representatives of mass species of marine macrophytes, bivalve mollusks and marine fish. It has been established that petroleum products make the greatest contribution to pollution of the Avacha Bay water area; in the last few years, there have been accidental spills and leaks of this pollutant. The existing network of state environmental reports includes 10 surveys, while in its north-eastern part, on the city coast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, only 4 have been registered. These stations are located from 265 m to 1.6 km from the coastal port regional province. Over the past five years, state environmental monitoring has revealed a decrease in the average annual level of dissolved petroleum products in water to 0.005 mg/l, while the maximum one-time values of their content may exceed the maximum established standards and requirements of 19 mg/l. The authors of the research on determining the content of oil products in the coastal regions of the north-eastern part of the Avacha Bay for the period from November 2022 to August 2024 revealed excesses of established standards in 85% of water samples and, in general, at a high average annual level of 0.3 to 1.3 mg/l. The conducted review of data from open sources and the obtained results of chemical analysis allows us to maintain the presence of a long-term and intense impact of oil pollution of the coastal waters of the Avacha Bay. Therefore, with the strengthening of the role of the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky port as a stronghold of the Northern Sea Route, measures should be developed to continue and gradually improve the ecological state of the bays, especially in the coastal zone, in order to preserve and restore marine coastal communities.