Michael Rostovtzeff explained this by the lack of any other decent harbours along the coastline between the bay and Batumi to the south.

[1] During the Middle Ages the Ghisolfi merchant family of Genoa controlled the coast.

In June 1918 Soviet Navy crews scuttled several ships of the Black Sea Fleet in the bay to avoid their transfer to the Germans.

Several notable shipwrecks occurred in Tsemes bay, including that of SS Admiral Nakhimov in 1986.

Following the 1992 establishment of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, the Commercial Seaport of Novorossiysk has emerged as the busiest oil terminal in the Black Sea.