KRASNODAR – The number of dead dolphins washed up on the Black Sea beach, from Sochi to Anapa, has reached 167, Krasnodar Territory prosecutor Sergei Tabelsky said.
“Mass dolphin deaths have been registered beginning in March of this year. The highest number of animals washed up ashore was discovered in May – 84 cases, in June – 16 cases. Scientific organizations concluded that in 99 percent of cases, the mammals died not in the coastal areas of Krasnodar Territory. They were simply thrown ashore by the sea,” Tabelsky said at a regional prosecutors’ forum on local environmental safety issues on June 27.
The scientists who investigated mass dolphin deaths have yet to come to a unanimous opinion as to the causes of what happened, the prosecutor said.
The investigation was carried out by two Crimean-based scientific organizations and Moscow’s Severtsev Institute of Ecology.
“Some of the animals died after having entangled themselves in fishing nets, others from exhaustion, from virus infections, and various parasites. The specialists have so far been unable to establish a causal link in the dolphins’ deaths,” Tabelsky said.
