Turkish scientist Bayram Öztürk advocates the urgent creation of an “ecological corridor” in the Black Sea to protect dolphins and the region’s ecosystem, which are “seriously threatened” by the war in Ukraine, AFP reported on Friday. . About 250,000 dolphins lived in the Black Sea before the conflict began, but “at least hundreds” have since been killed by low-frequency sonar used by Russian warships and submarines.

“This is a crime against the environment, not only against dolphins, but also against certain fish that are also endangered, such as sturgeon,” said the president of the Turkish Marine Research Foundation (Tudav) and director of the marine biology department at Istanbul University. writes Agerpres.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi on Wednesday condemned “ecocide”, saying that “thousands of dead dolphins washed up on the shores of the Black Sea” as a result of the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the marine environment.

Bayram Öztürk said it was impossible to count the number of dolphins killed in the region since February due to the ongoing war, but he said “at least hundreds” of the creatures have fallen victim to, in particular, low-frequency sonar. used by warships and Russian submarines.

“The dolphins received an acoustic injury. (The sonars) damage their guidance system and they eventually fail,” he told AFP.

According to the census conducted in 2020, the number of dolphins in the Black Sea is 250 thousand.

How to protect the ecosystem

“But other species also deserve protection. The ecosystem is a whole, you cannot protect one species without protecting another,” the specialist added.

How can the fragile ecosystem of the region be protected? “There should be an ecological corridor from the mouth of the Danube (on the border between Ukraine and Romania) to the Odesa region, where there is a very high concentration of dolphins,” Bayram Öztürk said.

“The war should be stopped in this area for at least two or three months, between January and April, during the dolphin migration,” he added, knowing his proposal could be seen as “romantic.”

The marine biologist also wants the creation of an “international scientific committee” that would be empowered to “study what is happening in the Black Sea because of the war.”

“We need international help”

“We need international supervision, we need to know exactly what is happening,” he insisted.

The scientist from Istanbul said that he conducts regular exchanges with Bulgarian, Romanian and Ukrainian colleagues. On Friday, his foundation is organizing a conference on maritime security in the Black Sea, where the environmental cost of the war in Ukraine will be discussed.

“I also communicate with Russian scientists,” he said. “They are very cooperative and say they are ashamed of what is happening. But everyone says they can’t do anything. They feel useless as scientists,” he said.

In Montreal, where the UN Conference on Biodiversity opened on Wednesday, Russia categorically rejected the accusations of Western countries, which accuse it of creating an environmental disaster in the region.

“Who will answer?”

Professor Ozturk is worried the war could drag on after Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday it was a “long process”.

“How can Ukrainians and others receive compensation for environmental damage?” Ozturk said, concerned about “a crack in the international legal system.”

“If they kill everyone, not just the dolphins, but the fish and the entire coastal habitat of fish, invertebrates and birds, who will be responsible?” he added.