Putin’s Dolphins

If the horrors of the Ukraine invasion weren’t bad enough, now comes news of a new victim of Putin’s war: dolphins. More than 100 dolphins have washed up on the shores of Turkey in recent months, and local marine biologists believe the creatures might be driven there by noise pollution generated by Russian warships in the north.

Warships and submarines emit low-frequency sonar that disrupts dolphins’ echolocation and ability to navigate, thwarting their ability to hunt and feed. The confused animals can panic and swim directly into harm’s way, which in wartime can include things like naval mines.

“These are only the deaths we have been able to observe,” Uğur Özsandıkçı, lead researcher of marine life at Sinop University, told NBC News. “There are those that have washed ashore that we haven’t seen. And there are those that have died and not come ashore. We think those numbers are very high.”

The marine biologists are careful to note that the immediate causes of the dolphin deaths are not yet known and that an investigation can take months or years, a problem compounded by the fact the coastline is largely inaccessible to researchers because of the war.

The noise pollution generated by the war machine can disturb other fish populations as well. The dolphins, at the top of the Black Sea food chain, are crucial to maintaining stability and balance in the local ecosystem. The researchers fear a massive disruption of marine fauna would take many years to recover.

Photo credit: Uğur Özsandıkçı via NBC News