“At least 50,000 died.” The silent victims of the war in Ukraine
Though the world tends to focus primarily on the human tragedy, the Russian-Ukrainian war causes irreversible damage in other areas as well. For example, in marine life. The biggest shock was last summer’s Kakhovka dam explosion by Russians – the flooded Dnipro river carried everything into the sea – but there are also constant phenomenons: underwater combat activities have been continuously polluting the environment since February 2022, and sonars used for reconnaissance could have killed tens of thousands of dolphins. At least this is what is claimed by Ivan Rusev of the Tuzly National Nature Park operating in Budzhak, the Ukrainian corner of the former Bessarabia. Emma Strauss, the Hungarian documentarist, has shot a short film about the worried-but-full-of-plans researcher. Full of inimitable images, Válasz Online is pleased to present the work of the Berlin-based freelance video reporter.
On a remote, peaceful beach on the Black Sea shoreline in southern Ukraine Ivan Rusev picked up his binoculars and scanned the horizon last month. “I see different species of migratory birds, cormorans, seagulls, but I unfortunately don’t see any dolphins… alive.” he said without lowering the binoculars.
The 63-year-old scientist and conservationist is the head of research at the Tuzly National Nature Park. He wears head to toe camouflage and a bucket hat most days, has a never-fading tan and friendly eyes. He can name almost every single plant, insect, bird and mammal inhabiting the national park in at least three languages.
Spending time in Nature brings joy to Ivan. But now he has a cause for immediate concern: the unusual decline in the number of native Black Sea dolphins – dolphins he remembers swimming among as a child.
Ivan fears that – in a little known impact of the Russian invasion of his country – up to 50,000 dolphins may have died in the first year of the conflict alone.
Official numbers show that around 2500 dolphins were found dead between the beginning of the war in February 2022 until May the same year. Most scientists believe the actual number however is much higher. Dolphins started washing up around the same time not only in Ukraine but also in Romania, Bulgaria in the West and Turkey in the South.
“My estimation is that at least 50,000 dolphins died in the first year of the full-scale war, most of which simply sank to the bottom of the sea and were not accounted for.”
The Russian war against Ukraine has claimed tens of thousands of lives and caused waves of displacement and destruction not seen in Europe since World War ll.
What has received less attention however is the massive environmental damage it has brought. Though estimating terrestrial impacts is already complex, the underwater effects have mostly gone uncharted and – as of now – are almost impossible to measure.
Last month, working with a Ukrainian colleague – I spent several days filming Ivan for a documentary we are filming about the impact of the war on the Black Sea.
Ivan and his team have been closely monitoring the Black Sea shoreline of the Nature Park for many years. He wakes up with the first sunlight and goes out to observe and make notes about migratory birds such as pelicans and flamingos nesting. Part of his daily chores is to research and document any unusual occurrences in the sea.
During one of our conversations, Ivan said that before the full-scale Russian war against Ukraine, he would rarely find dolphin carcasses washed up on the national park’s beach. Those he did find would typically have visible wounds such as missing fins, or scarring from fishing nets. “It was obvious that these animals had been caught up in fishing nets by accident and released back into the Black Sea often gravely injured.”
Now, however, the Black Sea dolphins seem to be facing a new ecological threat.
“I remember coming across the body of a washed up dolphin one morning in early March 2022 that just looked different,” he said. “It had no cuts or bruises, in fact no external marks of any kind. It looked healthy, well fed and beautiful. At first sight it looked alive, only when I stepped closer did I realise it was dead.”
That year Ivan and his team found 52 dead dolphins, compared to the average of three before the war.
The Black Sea was the scene of much fighting in the early months of the war. It is still used by warships, missile carriers, submarines and – more and more frequently – marine drones. Floating land mines are another common hazard, sometimes found as far as the Turkish shores.
Underwater missile launches, marine drones and ammunition that has sunk to the bottom of the sea cause significant chemical pollution. In the case of missile launches from submarines for example, litres of chemicals end up in the water.
Then in June 2023, things went from bad to worse for the Black Sea.
The Russian military blew up the Kakhovka dam in the Kherson region, causing extreme flooding and displacing thousands of locals. The collapse of the dam killed tens of thousands of animals. Millions of litres of chemicals, bacteria, litter and mines washed downstream into the Black Sea. The event was labelled as ecocide by scientists, due to its devastating effects on the environment – many of which are not yet fully known.
Pollution is an overall great threat to marine ecosystems, there is however another invisible hazard that scientists have been warning about.
Underwater noise pollution has significantly increased in the Black Sea since the beginning of 2022, mostly in connection to exploding mines, missile launches, exploding ammunition and – most importantly according to Ivan – the use of military sonars.
“After much research,” he said, “I suspect that underwater military sonars used by Russian submarines and warships play a key role in this ecological disaster.”
Dolphins, Ivan explained, live in a soundscape not a visual landscape like us humans – and hearing for them is the most vital sense. They use echolocation for communication, navigation and hunting.
The frequency of military sonars has the ability to cause severe acoustic trauma for dolphins, Ivan said, creating disorientation and stress – which results in the rapid weakening of their immune system.
Ivan’s hypothesis however is difficult to prove.
Other Ukrainian scientists working in the field have performed necropsies on the dolphins, taking inner ear samples from dead dolphins and sending them to Germany and Italy for further examination.
However, examining such samples is complex and cannot be done on carcasses older than 24 hours. And most scientists have been very cautious about pointing fingers at potential causes without scientific proof.
Ivan on the other hand is convinced of his hypothesis and is working on finding a solution to the ecological threat. Together with his team, he is planning to establish a dolphin rehabilitation centre and a marine reserve on the territory of the park.
The first one would serve as a rehabilitation centre for dolphins rescued from dolphinariums across Ukraine (the country with the highest number of dolphinariums in Europe), in order to reintegrate them into their natural habitat and boost their numbers in the Black Sea.
The marine reserve – an area planned to be 1000 km2 reaching from the shorelines of the Tuzly National Nature Park all the way to Snake island – would be created as a safe haven for dolphins and other marine species to reproduce and live an undisturbed life.
“It would be the first marine reserve of its kind in the Black Sea.” Ivan said.
All three cetacean species of the Black Sea – bottlenose dolphin, common dolphin and porpoise – were endangered even before the war began, victims of excessive fishing, pollution and viruses.
Ivan now worries that the war may finish off this precious species in this area altogether.
”I am upset and to some extent scared about what is currently happening,” he said. “If appropriate measures are not taken, there may be no dolphins left in the Black Sea.”
The project was supported by n-ost’s Europe-Ukraine Desk Grant Programme.
Cover picture: Sergii Mukaieliants
