Black Sea dolphins supported the construction of the Crimean Bridge
The construction of a bridge to Crimea increased the number of dolphins in the Kerch Strait: on some days, experts recorded more than a thousand of these mammals in the water area. This was reported by the Crimean Bridge information center.
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“Without exaggeration, dolphins have become construction companions. During ichthyological studies in November 2016, the total number of dolphins in the waters of the Kerch Strait exceeded 1000 animals, including about 200 Black Sea bottlenose dolphins,” said Oksana Fursova, leading environmental protection engineer of the Federal State Institution Uprdor “Taman”, citing the results of environmental monitoring carried out specialists from research institutes along the construction route.
In general, white-sided dolphins predominated in numbers: during one day of observations, they numbered up to 800 individuals. Azovs (porpoises) were found from the Azov Sea, at the entrance to the Kerch Strait, kept in small groups of 6-12 animals, and the total number of individuals of this species was 300-400.
Experts call the recorded number of dolphins high. The fact is that the number of fish in the construction area has increased approximately 10 times compared to the fall of 2015.
“Researchers attribute this growth to an increase in the food supply due to the active development of marine vegetation on the bridge piles,” Fursova explained.
During the research period, representatives of 10 species of fish were noted in the Taman and Dinsky bays: red mullet, horse mackerel, round goby, grass goby, sandpiper goby, martin goby, mullet, singil, anchovy and sea cat ray. At the same time, the migration of Singil and Loban during the construction of the bridge was concentrated near the borders of the Kerch-Yenikalsky Canal. This allowed dolphins to more effectively hunt migrating fish in this area of the sea.
Despite active construction work, the bridge route remains a concentration point for migrating and wintering bird species.
“To preserve bird populations, including rare ones, almost 90 rafts, feeders and artificial nesting sites have been installed in compensation areas. The construction area continues to be an important concentration point for migrating and wintering bird species,” said Ekaterina Azarova, an ecologist with the quality service of the SGM-Most company. –
A significant increase in the species composition of waders has been registered, large concentrations of coots have been discovered, and a high level of abundance of many species of gull birds has been established, including species listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation and the Krasnodar Territory.”
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