Six dead dolphins found on the coast of Odesa region in a week

Employees of the Tuzly Estuaries National Nature Park found four dead dolphins on the coast and two more outside the park during the week.

This was reported by the former director of the national park, Ivan Rusev, who compared the situation with the death of dolphins in May 2026 to the same in 2022.

"Four bodies of Black Sea cetaceans have already been found on a sandbar near the national park: three Azov and one white-beaked. In addition, two more dead Azovs were found on the beaches of Odesa. In Odesa, two more live Azovs with atypical behavior were also spotted - probably, the animals were contused by the powerful noise of the war," the ecologist said.

He noted that May 2026 was one of the largest in terms of the number of munitions used. Russian troops carried out chaotic bombardments with drones mixed with missiles, in particular, launching Kalibr cruise missiles from the Black Sea, as well as Shahed UAVs and ballistic missiles.

Ecologist also does not rule out that the mammals were killed or injured by bombs or mines in the sea areas of Kherson, Mykolaiv regions and Crimea occupied by the Russian Federation, or in the oil pollution zone of the Black Sea near the Russian ports of Tuapse or Novorossiysk, after which the current brought them to the shores of our national park.

"It is possible that the animals also died due to poisoning by oil clots. We observed such a phenomenon last year, when the sea brought a dead aphaline contaminated with oil almost 700 kilometers away to the national park. By the way, about 40 bodies of cetaceans have also been found recently on the Black Sea coast of Georgia," Ivan Rusev emphasized.

The last time a massive death of dolphins was observed was in the summer of 2025.

Кирило Бойко