Fishermen on Bulgaria's southern Black Sea coast are worried about attacks on merchant ships and about lost shipping containers. They want the state to give them the coordinates of every ship or container it spots, said Emil Milev, chair of the "Chernomorski Izgrev" fishermen's association.
"The state should help us, and whenever it spots a ship or a container, it should give us the coordinates. That is our request," Milev told BNT. He said the containers are a navigation hazard, and fishermen cannot see them at night because they are half-sunk. "A hit from a container like that sinks a small fishing boat. Even a medium-sized one will go down. It is a huge danger!"
Attacks have become more frequent, with three merchant ships sinking in Bulgaria's economic zone in about a month. No one knows exactly where the containers are drifting, so fishing is harder and the risk of serious accidents is rising.
The containers do not appear on sea charts, said Valentin Prodromov, chair of the "Neptun" fishermen's association. The boats have no equipment to detect foreign objects in the water, and fishermen fear a collision in the dark.
Some fishing boats work away from the shore, where the merchant ships' route also runs. Prodromov said the route has recently moved closer to Bulgarian territorial waters, so the two kinds of vessel often meet.
There is danger under the water too. If a trawl net snags a container, the boat can capsize, a fisherman from the region said.
Fishermen head out before dawn and try to be back before dark. The same fisherman said this began after the containers sank. Fewer boats are going out to fish.
Downed drones and debris wash up on the shore, and some of it may be unexploded, Prodromov said. Fishermen say the war now threatens their safety as well.
On 1 November, the VTMIS vessel traffic monitoring system spotted four containers drifting with the current in the Black Sea, east of the Gulf of Burgas. It issued a navigation warning and asked ships to pass with extra care.
It is now the autumn season for horse mackerel, bluefish and red mullet. There is no fish, Prodromov said, and the containers and attacks are a separate problem. The fish are migrating, and no one can say whether their route has changed because of Russia's war against Ukraine and the explosions at sea, or because of warming seas and the climate.