Dozens of cetaceans die in Black Sea over one month due to hostilities – photo
Dozens of dolphins have died in the Black Sea near temporarily occupied Crimea, Novorossiysk and the coast of Krasnodar Krai as a result of military operations in March 2024.
Source: Ivan Rusiev, head of the research department of the Tuzly Estuaries National Nature Park.
Quote: "In March 2024, several dozen dolphins have already died in the bays of Sevastopol and other coasts of occupied Crimea. We have also found animals suffering from contusion with symptoms of sonar damage (sonars are means of sound detection of underwater objects using acoustic irradiation – ed.) Moreover, there are many dolphins of the white-beaked species among the dead.
The current has also brought to our Odesa and Bulgarian shores Azov whales killed in the war in the Russian-occupied waters of the Black Sea," Rusiev said.
He emphasises that the animals are dying because of the activity of Russian submarines and surface vessels near Crimea and Novorossiysk.
Ivan Rusiev said that the sea throws away only 5% of the bodies, so the number of dead animals can reach several thousand.
He reiterates that dolphins began dying en masse in March 2022.
Quote: "Then a terrible mass death of cetaceans began – hundreds of them were washed up on different Black Sea shores. We have written about this many times and estimated the number of dolphins killed by the war – 50,000 animals in total," the researcher said.
Earlier, UP reported that it would take decades to restore Ukrainian nature after the hostilities.
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