[Animals] More than 5,000 dolphins have died in the Black Sea due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine

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Before the Russian invasion, only 3 stranded dolphins were recorded in Ukraine per year. In just 6 months, the figure exceeds thousands of fatal cases.
Ivan Russev is 63 years old. For much of his life, he has been involved with underwater wildlife in the Black Sea, between Western Asia and Eastern Europe. At present, the ecosystem is under pressure from the pressure of the Russian invasion. In the six months of military hostilities, around 5,000 dolphins have died in the vicinity of Ukraine.

Russev and his team have spent months collecting the bodies that wash up on the Ukrainian coast. According to AFP coverage, the death toll is 'terrifying'. The Ukrainian scientist, who serves as the director of the Tuzly Lagoons National Park, has collected bodies of jackals, dolphins and other species of marine mammals near Odessa, in southwestern Ukraine, near the border with Romania.

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The war on the biosphere: what consequences has the Russian invasion had for the fauna of the Black Sea?

Along 280 square kilometers, the coasts are protected in the Bessarabia region. Since January 2010, this region is a protected natural area by the Ukrainian government. Since Roman times, this body of salty water has been problematic for boaters. In fact, it was known as 'the inhospitable sea', because of how difficult it was to cross them for the largest boats.

These complications have been maintained over the millennia. In the 1990s, this region was further politicized by the disintegration of the Soviet Union. By giving entrance to Turkey, Georgia, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine and Russia, the Black Sea has become an area of great economic and military influence.

Also read: Russia and Ukraine, the tangled history that unites and divides the two countries at war

Documenting is resisting
With the outbreak of military hostilities between Russia and Ukraine, the biosphere has also been affected. More than 6 months into the war, Bulgarian and Ukrainian scientists have been in communication to continue documenting animal deaths in the region:

“[…] WE STARTED TO COMMUNICATE WITH OUR TURKISH, BULGARIAN, ROMANIAN COLLEAGUES, AND THEY ALL REACH THE SAME CONCLUSIONS: THERE IS A HUGE NUMBER OF DOLPHINS KILLED SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR”, DENOUNCES RUSSEV, ALONG WITH HIS TEAM OF COLLEAGUES.

The researchers assure that the first fatal cases were documented in early March 2022. Before the war in Ukraine, only 3 dolphins stranded in the region. Currently, the figure rises to 5 thousand.

Not even the quality of 'nature reserve' has been enough to protect the species of the Black Sea. Many of Ukraine's dolphin carcasses have been collected inside Limans Tuzly Lagoons National Nature Park, near the town of Prymorske. The effects of war on nature would not be known without the record of Ivan Russev and his colleagues.

https://www.ngenespanol.com/animales/5-mil-delfines-muertos-en-ucrania-tras-la-invasion-rusa/