Out of 62 cases of stranded dolphins and porpoises identified since the start of the year, 40 cases were identified in 12 days, the NGO Mare Nostrum Constanţa announced on May 11.

After seeing in between one and five cases per day, in one instance, 26 beached dolphins were identified in the area of the Danube Delta, between Sulina and Sf. Gheorghe, on the Romanian coast of the Black Sea, Marian Paiu of the NGO Mare Nostrum Constanţa told Dobrogea.tv.

Biologists have attributed the increased number of strandings to acoustic trauma. The heightened noise pollution in the northern part of the Black Sea, caused by the war in Ukraine, is pushing the cetaceans south. They can also get caught in fishing nets at higher rates, and some of the cetaceans stranded on Romanian shores had net marks and cuts, biologist Costin Timofte explained for Dobrogea.tv.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, higher number of dolphin strandings have been reported in both Bulgaria and Turkey. 

(Photo: Aragami12345 | Dreamstime.com)

simona@romania-insider.com