Young dolphin in distress rescued in Bulgaria’s Bourgas
A young dolphin was rescued and returned to the sea at Bourgas central beach after a report that it had come ashore, Bulgaria’s Ministry of Environment and Water said on May 13.
The ministry said that the dolphin was a young specimen of the common Black Sea Dolphin (Delphinus Delphis) and had no visible external injuries.
Coming ashore was common behaviour when a dolphin was sick. Problems in dolphins’ echolocation organs may be of fungal, viral, bacterial or parasitic origin.
The Guardian reported on May 10 that scientists believed that the war in Ukraine may be resulting in increased dolphin deaths, with heightened noise pollution from about 20 Russian naval vessels in northern Black Sea waters driving dolphins south to Turkish and Bulgarian shores, where they are being stranded or caught in fishing nets in unusually high numbers.
The Environment Ministry said that under Bulgaria’s Biodiversity Act, the three species of Black Sea dolphins are classified as protected, prohibiting “disturbance, pursuit, capture, killing or retrieval of dead specimens”.
It said that anyone seeing a distressed or dead dolphin could contact the “Green Telephone” of the Regional Inspectorate of Environment and Water in Bourgas at 056 813 212, after hours 088 909 6577.
(Photo: Ministry of Environment and Water)
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