Six dead dolphins in a week in the Odesa region: ecologists link this to explosions in the Black Sea

Over the past week, 6 dead dolphins were found on the coast of the Odesa region: 4 within the Tuzly Lagoons National Nature Park and another 2 outside its boundaries, ecologist Ivan Rusyev reported.

Rusyev said he published the information on social media and noted that the scale of the deaths can now be compared with similar cases in past years, when increased cetacean mortality had already been recorded on the Black Sea coast.

“On a sandy spit near the national park, four bodies of Black Sea cetaceans have already been found: three common dolphins and one white‑beaked dolphin. In addition, two more dead common dolphins were found on the beaches of Odesa. There, in Odesa, two live common dolphins with atypical behavior were also recorded — the animals are likely concussed by the powerful noises of war,” ecologist Ivan Rusyev said.

Among the possible causes, the scientist names the acoustic impact of military actions in the Black Sea: explosions, missile and drone strikes, and underwater detonations that can damage hearing and disorient animals. He also separately points to pollution of the waters by oil products, which can also lead to dolphin deaths.

“It is possible that the animals also died from poisoning by clumps of oil products. We observed this phenomenon last year, when the sea brought a dead bottlenose dolphin to the national park, contaminated with oil from almost 700 kilometers away. By the way, recently about 40 cetacean carcasses were also found on the Black Sea coast of Georgia,” Ivan Rusyev noted.

In his assessment, individual bodies could have drifted with currents and ended up on the Odesa coast from other parts of the Black Sea, which complicates accurately determining the place of their death.

Earlier, in the village of Zherebkove in the Podilskyi district of Odesa region, a mass fish die-off and a change in the color of the water in a reservoir were recorded — it turned bright pink.

Previously we wrote:

• Russian shelling of Mykolaiv region: damages from air pollution in just one month — over UAH 3.5 million
• After a night strike on Odesa — 18 wounded: a hotel, apartment buildings and cars caught fire
• Russia targets water intakes: Mykolaiv prepares mobile stations of 300,000 m3/day, possible water supply schedules
• Night drone attack on Odesa region damaged energy infrastructure and ports, fires broke out
• In the Black and Azov Seas, several thousand dolphins died because of Russia’s actions
• Where the reserve used to be — a desert: the war destroyed the unique Kinburn Spit