The coast of Odesa is littered with dead Black Sea seahorses

Recent surveys of the Odesa coastline have recorded massive discharges of marine organisms. Among them, there are especially many Black Sea seahorses - Hippocampus guttulatus.

Ecologist Vladyslav Balinsky said that in some areas in the area of 9-11 stations of the Big Fountain, up to 35 individuals per square meter were recorded.

The seahorses once disappeared from the Gulf of Odesa due to industrial and chemical pollution, and the population's recovery began only in 2017. Now the war and its aftermath have created new stress for the coastal ecosystem.

According to the ecologist, the accumulation of dead animals on the shore does not necessarily reflect the actual place of their death. The shoreline works like a trap, concentrating organisms due to currents and hydrodynamics.

Today, the sea is a vast field of evidence of ecocide that continues every day. Our task is to establish the mechanisms of organisms' death and preserve the health of the entire Gulf of Odesa," Balinsky emphasized.

Environmentalists believe that the main reason for the mass deaths is the release of thousands of tons of vegetable oil into the sea due to strikes on port infrastructure. The oil settles on the bottom and rises to the bottom layer during storms, clogging fish gills and disrupting breathing. The effect has already affected filtering mussel colonies that keep coastal water clean.

Similar effects have been recorded in the Tuzly Estuaries National Nature Park. According to Ivan Rusev, clumps of vegetable oil and dead birds were found on the 28th kilometer of the park's sandy embankment. The fact that the emissions were detected at a distance of about 150 kilometers from the accident site indicates regional pollution, not a separate local case.

The ecologist noted that he and his colleagues from the Tuzly Estuaries National Park and the National Ecological Center of Ukraine (Sundanse Project) are using a comprehensive approach to objectively record the environmental consequences of the war.

For an objective assessment of the environmental situation, ecologists use satellite sensing, field surveys, laboratory tests of tissues, and gill microscopy for the presence of oil polymers.

Earlier, Balinsky said that the 2026 beach season in Odesa could be jeopardized due to the effects of the Black Sea pollution with vegetable oil.

Анна Літман