in the Black Sea, dolphins collateral victims of the war in Ukraine

On his phone, Ukrainian scientist Ivan Rusev keeps photos of dolphins stranded in recent months. “I have a lothe says, scrolling through them. That’s the last.” A dolphin with no apparent injuries or typical wounds usually caused by fishing nets.

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In total, at least 5,000 strandings have been spotted on the coasts by Turkish, Romanian, Bulgarian and Ukrainian scientists who speak of a figure “creepy”. The Black Sea dolphin population is estimated at around 250,000 animals. Deaths would therefore already represent nearly 2% of the total population of cetaceans in the Black Sea.

These deaths are due to the very heavy military presence in the Black Sea, which has become too noisy for the mammals. “Dolphins are very sensitive to sonar, to certain waves”explains the scientist.

“Russian submarines, to navigate, use very powerful sonars. This destroys their inner ear. This acoustic trauma destroys their sense of orientation. The dolphins have no chance of catching fish anymore.”

However, as Ivan Rusev explains, “Every day, dolphins need 25 to 30 kilos of fish. Without these fish, they lose weight, their humanitarian system fails, and the dolphins die of infection.” “It’s very sad that we don’t have the power today to help nature”he regrets.

“We cannot estimate all the damage”worries Iryna Vykhrystiuk, director of the nature reserve des Limans de Tuzly, which covers 28,000 hectares. “It’s after that we will evaluate them and I think we will be horrified. Nature has a huge capacity for regeneration but we will have to create the conditions for that.”

IThey know it, the message of scientists is difficult to hear, in the midst of war, when humans are dying and being injured every day. But they want to continue to defend their project, which today seems very daring: ccreate, at the end of the war, a gigantic marine protected area, around the island of snakes 50 km away. A precious area for birds on their migratory route but today above all a strategic military site, conquered by the Russians, then taken over by the Ukrainians.