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Since February 2022, the number of dead cetaceans on the Black Sea coastline has increased. The cause of such trouble was the military aggression of the Russian Federation, which changed the natural balance. "Bessarabia INFORM" informs about this, referring to the State Environmental Inspection of the South-Western Region.
According to the latest scientific estimates, about 250 dolphins lived in the Black Sea before the full-scale invasion. And according to scientists, after the start of the war, every fifth animal died in all Black Sea countries. Such scale of death is really frightening.
How many cetaceans really died - no one knows, because the calculated numbers are those dolphins that fell directly into the hands of researchers, or their deaths were confirmed by photo and video evidence.
The causes of such catastrophic losses are considered to be chemical and acoustic pollution of the sea.
The first category of water pollution during the war is related to oil products - fuel and oil from ships and aircraft, toxic explosives and heavy metals from ammunition ended up in the water.
The second category of pollution is acoustic. The body of dolphins works according to the principle of a living sonar: the signals received and transmitted help them navigate in space.
Submarines emit signals at frequencies that can be picked up by dolphins. But submarine signals are louder than dolphin signals, so they can cause acoustic trauma to a dolphin.
Not having the opportunity to orient themselves, dolphins cannot eat and begin to starve, they can become confused and panic, accidentally swimming ashore or blowing up sea mines.
In order to understand what is really happening, scientists conduct autopsies of dead animals, take samples of materials and perform analyses. This is mainly done in Turkey, where Ukrainian researchers also work.
In general, it will take 30 to 40 years after the war to rebuild the dolphin population.
