The damage to the Barents Sea after the sinking of the fishing vessel "Onega" was estimated at almost 66 million rubles. Rosprirodnadzor appealed to the Arbitration Court of the Arkhangelsk Region with a demand to recover this amount from the Fishing Collective Farm named after M. I. Kalinin, which owned the vessel.
According to the agency's specialists, the amount of environmental damage amounted to 65,777,203 rubles. The lawsuit is related to the fact that the sunken trawler is still at the bottom of the sea and continues to be considered a source of negative impact on the environment.
The accident with the vessel "Onega" occurred on December 28, 2020, in the Novaya Zemlya area. During the incident, 17 crew members died, and two more sailors managed to survive. After the sinking, the trawler was not raised from the bottom and remains in the waters of the Barents Sea.
Rosprirodnadzor stated that the vessel was decommissioned, and the cause of the accident was violations in the performance of official duties. After the organization failed to comply with the demand for voluntary compensation for damages, the agency decided to seek compensation through court.
Now, the court proceedings must determine the procedure for recovering funds for the consequences of the vessel's sinking. At the same time, the trawler itself remains at the site of the disaster several years after the catastrophe, which continues to raise questions from the point of view of the region's environmental safety.