Russian authorities launched a major rescue operation at the northern mouth of the Black Sea yesterday to save missing seamen and contain environmental damage after a storm sank at least four ships and split open a small oil tanker.

Three bodies were found ashore near the Tuzla Spit, a piece of land jutting out from the Russian coast towards the Ukrainian Crimea, Interfax news agency reported. Russia?s Emergencies Ministry said at least eight other sailors were missing. ?A border patrol discovered three persons in life vests grounded on the coastline near Tuzla Spit. They may have been crew members of the dry cargo ship Nakhichevan that sank in the port of Kavkaz,? Interfax quoted a spokesman as saying.

Sunday?s storm broke in two a small Russian oil tanker, the Volgoneft-139, off the Ukrainian port of Kerch, spilling at least 1,300 tonnes of fuel oil in what a Russian official described as an ?environmental disaster?. The same storm in narrow straits between the Black Sea and Azov Sea, also sank at least four freighters, three carrying sulphur and one with a cargo of scrap metal. The heavy seas also cracked the hull of another oil tanker, but the ship was afloat.

Russian officials said shipping in the area had been warned well in advance of heavy storms but it appeared some captains had chosen to ignore the advice and put to sea. Viktor Beltsov, a spokesman for the Russian Emergencies Ministry, said that six other ships had run aground, though they were not carrying oil.

He said 165 rescuers had already saved 35 crew members and were hunting for the other missing seamen. Officials said that in the cold winter temperatures the fuel oil may sink to the bottom of the sea rather than float on the surface, making it harder to find and disperse.