The war is destroying the Black Sea: more than 100,000 dolphins dead and a threat to the entire ecosystem

More than 100,000 dolphins have died in the Black Sea since the start of the full-scale invasion, and chemical pollution threatens to spread as far as the Bosphorus strait.

This was reported to RBC-Ukraine by Ivan Rusev, Doctor of Biological Sciences and head of the research department of the Tuzlovsky Estuaries National Nature Park.

According to the scientist’s estimates, 20,000 dolphins died in the Black Sea in the first half of 2026 alone. The true scale of losses is significantly harder to document: Rusev says that 95% of carcasses sink, and of the remaining 5% that wash ashore, only a small fraction are ever found.

“Recording dead dolphins is a race against time. The most important thing right now is to document the scale of the catastrophe, because if every death is not recorded now, people will later say that ‘the war had no impact,'” the scientist stated.

Rusev emphasized that the Black Sea has never seen such pressure on these animals in its history. All three species of Black Sea dolphins are listed on the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Against the backdrop of population decline, the animals are changing their behavior. According to the scientist, colleagues from Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey are recording that dolphins are leaving the combat zone en masse — there are currently more of them in the waters of those countries than is usual for this time of year. Rusev noted that the animals “are trying to survive, but the overall population size remains low.”

Chemical pollution poses a separate threat. According to Rusev’s assessment, it could spread as far as the Bosphorus strait — meaning it could affect the entire Black Sea.

“We may lose a unique ecosystem. Without dolphins, the Black Sea will cease to be ‘alive.’ It will begin to degrade. And life within it will fade away,” warned the head of the research department of the Tuzlovsky Estuaries National Nature Park.