Due to a full-scale war on the territory of Ukraine, at least 50,000 dolphins died. They often lost their bearings, ran into mines, and starved. Ivan Rusev, head of the scientific department of the Tuzlovskiye Limany Natural Park, spoke about this.
According to him, there were two million individuals in the Black Sea. Two years ago, they counted 253,000, however, during the active phase of the war, there were much fewer of them, because almost 20% of cetaceans died.
“Somewhere from March to July there was an active phase of the war in the Black Sea. There were a lot of submarines, submarines, there were bombardments and de-occupation of Snake Island. Then the dolphins died, and the sea threw them ashore,” he said.
Rusev explained that powerful signals hit the inner ear of dolphins, they get acoustic trauma and lose their orientation.
“When echolocation is impaired, it is difficult for dolphins to find food. They need to eat 30 kg of fish daily. If there are no fish, the dolphin loses weight and immunity, and starts to get sick. Dolphins were also found on the shore, which were burned by a mine explosion at a distance, because those that stumbled upon them drowned on the spot. A dolphin can stumble upon a mine only when it is struck by something, a healthy animal would bypass it,” the scientist notes.
