The Snake Island, a tempting tiny islet of great values

Lost in boundless north-western part of the Black Sea, Snake Island, was once part of a border dispute between Romania and Ukraine in 2004–2009. Even though it is rather tiny, only 630 × 360 m, the islet’s uniqueness has attracted seafarers, travellers, historians, writers, scientists, and explorers. It lies about 37.5 km off the coast of Vylkove, the nearest Ukrainian town, and around 300 km west of Crimea. The cruciform shape islet, at first sight, seems an unlikely source of dispute. Located in the Kalija channel of the Danube, the most northern of the many arms of the river flowing through the Danube Delta into the Black Sea, the island measures less than two square kilometers in size, is surrounded by rocks and its beaches are stony. The snakes which provided its name have virtually disappeared. It has no tourist potential and economically has little to offer. Romanian officials say the harbour facilities have been out of operation for years and almost nothing can grow there. Nevertheless, apart from its unremarkable features, the snake Island is one potential hot spot. This tiny landmass locations in Ukraine’s corner of the Black Sea makes it a tempting prize in an increasingly militarized maritime region. According to diplomats in Bucharest, one reason for the interest in controlling it is the possibility that oil, and gas reserves may lie in the sea floor under the forbidding cliffs.

The historic past of the island is no less unique. In ancient time, Pericles, a Greek statesman, an author, and general during the Golden Age of Athens called the island Levka, Sherpilor, Makaren (the island of Blessed). The Snake Island has played a role in the region for many centuries. It was one of the many sacred elements of ancient Greeks, who also called it the Island of Achilles, the mythological hero of Homer’s “Iliad”. It was mentioned frequently in works by ancient Greek writers, when it was called Leucos or the White Island −this is due to its calcareous geological structure, stipulated by the rocks that make up the island that creates the colour of which varies from gray to white. According to ancient Greek legend, the island was lifted out of the sea by goddess Thetis for her son Achilles. The ancient Greeks had a military base here. They also built on the island a temple dedicated to Achilles, however, the temple was destroyed in 1837 by Russian sailors who used its stones for the construction of a lighthouse. The ruins of this temple, 30 meters to a side, were discovered by the Russian naval Captain N. D. Kritzkii in 1823, but the subsequent construction of the lighthouse on the very site obliterated all trace of it. The lighthouse is an octagonal-shaped building, 12 meters tall, located near the highest elevated area of the island, 40 meters above the sea level. It was heavily damaged during World War II by Soviet aviation and German retreating forces. It was restored at the end of 1944 by the Odessa military radio detachment. In 1949 it was further reconstructed and equipped by the Black Sea Fleet (a large formation of warships of the Russian Navy in the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov and the Mediterranean Sea). The lighthouse was further upgraded in 1975 and 1984. Romanian (Moldavian and Wallachian) princes ruled over the island in medieval times, but Russian efforts to take control of it. The Snake Island was taken over by Moscow at the end of the last century. But following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Snake Island became Ukrainian territory.

Also known as Serpent Island, Snake Island has a rocky, brightly coloured (due to different sediments) and steep banks, which reach a height of four to five meters in the north-eastern part and 25 meters in the southwest. The name Serpents Island may be traced back to the 14th-century period of Genovese dominance over the Black Sea and is apparently due to the many reptiles found by the Genovese sailors in the ancient Greek temple’s water reservoirs. The island itself lacks fresh water, however, and this is one of the reasons that until recently it was never inhabited. There are 4 beaches on the island, as well as numerous caves and cleft coming from the depths of the sea to the mainland cliff. The island’s vegetation is represented by steppe grass. The peculiarities of the climate are the winds, frequent changes in weather and high humidity.

The island is currently demilitarized and under development. The Russian seizure of Crimea in 2014 has already allowed Moscow to dominate large swathes of the Black Sea that rightfully belong to Ukraine. Until it regains Crimea, Snake Island will remain key to Ukraine’s maritime territorial claims. Recent developments indicate that Ukraine is well aware of Snake Island’s strategic importance, as well as the island’s extreme vulnerability to Russian attack. A rural settlement on the island, Bile was established in February 2007 with the purpose of consolidating the status of the island as an inhabited place. About 100 inhabitants live on the island, mostly frontier guard servicemen with their families and technical personnel. In 2003, an initiative of the Odessa I. I. Mechnikov National University established the Ostriv Zmiinyi marine research station every year at which scientists and students from the university conduct research on local fauna, flora, geology, meteorology, atmospheric chemistry, and hydrobiology.

For many decades Snake Island was closed for visitors. After passing decision about its civil use, the task of complex studies of historical legacy of the island and its valuable nature developments became of present interest. All outcrops of significance rock formations were investigated. The geological age of rocks on the island is essentially specified and defined as Upper Devonian, a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian (419.2 million years ago − a period when a significant evolutionary milestone as the diversification of jawed fish and bony fish occurred), to the beginning of the Carboniferous (358.9 million years ago − a period that sometimes called the Age of Amphibians, during which amphibians became dominant land vertebrates and diversified into many forms including lizard-like, snake-like, and crocodile-like). Undoubtedly, Snake Island is one of the most valuable geosites. In 1985, in the book Geological monuments of Ukraine, the Snake Island was regarded as an important geological monument of nature. Its picturesque indented rocky shores with grottoes, its famous historic-cultural past and the unique peculiarities of the geological structure deserve the stricter conservation at the level of geosites of European importance. Now Snake Island is a zoological reserve of national significance, which includes ecologically valuable part of the island with 500 m waters of the Black Sea.