Black Sea dolphin population could take up to 50 years to recover to prewar levels – environmentalist

Ivan Rusiev, an employee of the Tuzly Estuaries National Nature Park, said this in a comment to Ukrinform. The environmentalist said that dolphins in the Black Sea face the threat of complete extinction because of the war. According to him, dolphins were added to the international Red Book as early as the 1980s. During the Soviet era, the mammals were killed for their fat, meat, and bone meal. “Over several decades, 6 million dolphins disappeared. Then another disaster struck the mammals: the emergence of mnemiopsis, jellyfish-like organisms that feed on anchovy eggs. The anchovy population, which is dolphins’ main food source, declined.