Portal www.BlackSea-online.com announces that now you can subscirbe for a monthly report on the ecological situation on the coast and in the waters of the Black and Azov seas. Up-to-date information of all subscribers on the detected incidents (with vector files of probable oil spillages of water area delivery and the information on deformations at coast) will be provided as well.

For more information contact us: monitoring@BlackSea-online.com

Our comments are related to the misunderstanding of the www.BlackSea-online.com project mission by Bulgarian readers after some doubtful publications in the Bulgarian press.

The www.BlackSea-online.com project was launched in November 2007, aiming to provide people with objective information on the Monitoring of the Black Sea water surface. We are not connected with any people or organizations who are interested in harming Bulgarian tourism.

The project provides information about the locations of possible oil contaminations, not only in the Bulgarian waters (it only began monitoring the shelf of Bulgaria in April 2008), but in all countries in the Black Sea region. The project actually seems to be useful for tourism in Bulgaria, since it helps preventing ecological catastrophes. Moreover, in the event of such ecological problems, the project may assist government organizations in taking operational measures to prevent and minimize ecological consequences. Thus, for instance, the recent mazut spills near Varna on June 24 showed that the danger of disturbance of the ecological balance objectively exists.

The slicks of petroleum products on the water surface are often consequences of oil spills but also the result of the discharge of polluted ballast water from oil tankers. Even though such oil slicks rapidly disappear from the water surface, they obviously pollute the sea water.

Our project is special because it is the first time that monitoring of whole surface of Black sea is provided and is available from the internet. The modern technologies of image processing are used by the qualified specialists members of the project.

The project Monitoring of the Black Sea coastline and Water Surface with Remote Sensing (www.BlackSea-online.com) was presented at the 17th International Symposium "ECOLOGY & SAFETY" on June 10, 2008 in Sunny Beach, Bulgaria.

Over 140 participants from 12 countries, including the municipal authorities of Burgas (Bulgaria) and Alexandroupolis (Greece) attended the symposium. The presentation showed a great interest on behalf of the participants. Indeed, all countries in the Black Sea region are concerned with the preservation of the ecology of the Black Sea coastline and water. Our project could become a successful addition to the existing program of the space monitoring Clean Sea.

We are interested in attracting investments for the development of www.BlackSea-online.com and are opened for collaboration with all governmental organizations and municipal authorities. So far the project has been non-commercial. If the administrations of the Black Sea countries are interested in our activities, we would welcome any financial assistance that would allow us improve the quality and frequency of our monitoring.