In the Black Sea, an unprecedented wave of dead dolphins since the start of the war in Ukraine

Twenty dolphins were found dead a few days ago on a beach in Agaçli, north of Istanbul in Turkey. These would only be the latest in a sad series. “Over the past month, there has been an extraordinary increase in the number of deaths” of these cetaceans, alert in a press release the Turkish Maritime Research Foundation, in a press release published this Saturday. According to her, since the last week of February, more than 80 remains of dolphins have been discovered on the western shores of the Black Sea in Turkey.

The bodies were removed by the gendarmerie to be studied, and to determine the cause of death. But the concordance between this increase and the start of the conflict in Ukraine, another country on the Black Sea coast, is worrying. “The shores on the other side of the Black Sea are a war zone. Did they die because of the chemicals in the water?”asks Gurkan Gazoglu, the member of an animal rights NGO who found the dead dolphins, on the private Turkish channel NTV. “We must determine the cause”he hammered.

Changed normal moves

According to the Turkish Maritime Research Foundation, most dolphins found dead die while being trapped in fishing nets or pelagic trawls. But the reason for the unprecedented rise in these cases compared to previous years in the Black Sea remains unexplained. “We don’t know how to explain this concentration of cases compared to previous years and why accidental net catches have increased so much”specifies the organization.

The animals seem to have changed their usual movements. To understand the phenomenon, the foundation indicates to study “the effect of climate change, unusual maritime traffic, fish migrations and intense military activities that cause dolphins to move south”. In the meantime, she invites fishermen to “use the greatest care possible to reduce interactions with dolphins”.