The Black Sea region is one of the most important economic areas both for Russia and for other countries of the Black Sea basin. For Russia this is a very important route for the export of gas, oil and oil products by shipping from Novorossiysk and Tuapse ports and via a number of pipelines. The unique deep-water pipeline «Goluboy potok» («Blue stream») lying on the sea bed connects Russia and Turkey. On March 15, 2007 the governments of Bulgaria, Greece and Russia signed the agreement about the construction a pipeline Burgas – Alexandroupolis.

However, ecological organizations consider the Black Sea as one of the most polluted areas in the world. The main sources of contamination are the runoff of industrial waters and numerous oil spills due to high traffic of oil shipping. According to central dispatching management of fuel and energy complex, last year 47.192 millions of tons of oil were shipped from Novorossiysk port and 5.086 millions of tons from Tuapse. Increase in oil shipping traffic inevitably means increasing water pollution. This is why the ecological situation in the Black Sea region including Russian shelf at the moment can be considered as critical.

Realizing the increasing danger of ecological disaster, “Geomarketing Research Center” initiated a project aimed on monitoring the Black Sea waters along the Russian coastline. All the results of the project are publicly available and can be found on the project web-site www.BlackSea-online.com.