The bodies of three sailors were recovered on Monday by the rescuers after the Russian freighter Nakhichevan sank near Crimean peninsula on Sunday, Herald Tribune reports.

The bodies were recovered near Tuzla, on the western part of the strait of Kerch.

According to the sayings of Sergei Kozhemyaka, Emergency Situations spokesman the searching continued for five more others.

Anatoly Yanchuck, chief at a rescue department from Transport Ministry said: “We will continue efforts to find those five missing, but the chances of finding them are now smaller. The weather is worsening and the number of rescue vessels has been cut,” Reuters reports.

The Nakhichevan was one of the two freighters that split under a fierce storm with 18-foot waves and high winds.

During the storm almost 10 ships sank or ran in the area near the Strait of Kerch.

The Volganeft-139 was caring 4,000 tones of fuel oil. Half of it spilled into the strait triggering in what the officials said it could be the worst environmental disaster that occurred in the region in years.

Due to the cold water the thick substance will sink thus making the clean-up harder.

After having rescued the 13 crew members, 100 workers began to clean up the spill along Ilyich settlement, halfway between Kavkaz and Novorossiisk, using shovels and a bulldozer to scrape globules of oil off the sand.

Birds covered with oil could be seen as they were trying to fly.

Yanhcuk said that once the weather improves the workers could begin to pump the oil from the tanker.

A regional prosecutor, Maxim Stepanenko said that the captains of the ships had been warned about the conditions of the weather. According to him Volganeft-139 was not designed to resist a fierce storm.

A Greenpeace group said that these accidents revealed the fact that oil shipping in the region has shortcomings.

Alexei Kiselyov, coordinator of Greenpeace Russia’s anti-pollution campaigns said: “In Russia we do not have one hundred percent of our ships maintained in a suitable condition as is the practice in the West. In the last few days we have seen a very clear demonstration of that,” Reuters reports.