Dolphins are among the most fascinating and intelligent marine animals that can be found in the Black Sea. These dolphins have long won over people’s hearts with their lively personalities and amazing social skills.
The ability of Black Sea dolphins to communicate, navigate, and form close-knit groups—behavior that frequently resembles that of humans—is what really sets them apart. There are always surprises in their interactions with each other and their surroundings.
We’ll explore some fascinating and little-known facts about Black Sea dolphins in this post, emphasizing their intelligence, adaptability, and significance to the marine environment.
| Fact | Description |
| Species | There are three species of dolphins found in the Black Sea: the common dolphin, bottlenose dolphin, and harbour porpoise. |
| Communication | Black Sea dolphins use clicks, whistles, and body language to communicate with each other. |
| Lifespan | They can live up to 30 years or more in the wild, depending on environmental factors. |
| Social animals | They live in groups called pods, usually consisting of 10 to 15 individuals. |
| Diet | Their diet mainly consists of fish and small marine animals like squid. |
| Threats | Pollution, overfishing, and habitat destruction pose major threats to their population. |
- There are 3 species of dolphins in the Black Sea
- Dolphins transmit dozens of sound signals
- Almost 70 years ago, over a million dolphins lived in the Black Sea
- Dolphins are not fish, but mammals
- Dolphins love to play
- Dolphins are the best sea rescuers
- The Black Sea bottlenose dolphin is the most common species of dolphin in the Black Sea
- Dolphins have a big brain
- People began to study and train Black Sea dolphins in the middle of the twentieth century
- Dolphin skin is like silk
- Hundreds of dolphins are washed up on the Black Sea coast every year
- Each Black Sea dolphin needs 10-30 kg of fish per day
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There are 3 species of dolphins in the Black Sea
There are just three species of dolphins in the waters of the Black Sea:
The Black Sea dolphins are regarded as an endemic subspecies that cannot be found anywhere else because they differ genetically and morphologically from other dolphin populations in the western and northeastern Mediterranean.
Dolphins transmit dozens of sound signals
Dolphin whistles, clicks, and trills can be heard from a great distance out to sea because sound travels through water much more effectively than through air. Certain sounds made by dolphins are too low for humans to hear. Echolocation makes use of these extremely high-frequency noises. The dolphin receives information about the object’s size, shape, direction of motion, and speed from the ultrasonic waves that are reflected off of submerged objects. This is how they navigate the somewhat murky waters of the Black Sea, particularly in coastal waters, and find out where other family members are.
Dolphin trainers instruct their charges to perform a trick using ultrasonic whistles.
Almost 70 years ago, over a million dolphins lived in the Black Sea
Dolphins have long been hunted by the people who live along the Black Sea coast. Their meat was a perfectly acceptable meal, and their skin was used to make fabric for fishermen’s waterproof clothing. The fat from the dolphins was also burned in lamps. Dolphins in the Black Sea were endangered across all species by the middle of the 20th century. More than a million dolphins are thought to have resided in the Black Sea in the early 1950s, but in the years that followed, they were harvested for industrial purposes. In actuality, over 440,000 common dolphins were wiped out between 1958 and 1966!
Since 1966, the majority of Black Sea nations have outlawed dolphin hunting due to the animals’ high risk of extinction. In the 1980s, Turkey complied with the embargo. Since then, all three species of dolphins have seen a slow but steady recovery in their populations in the Black Sea; scientists estimate that there are currently tens of thousands of dolphins in the area.
For instance, the smallest and most impacted dolphin is the Stuporny dolphin. Due to hunting, the species—whose fat was highly prized—became extremely rare along the Black Sea’s entire coast in the 1990s. It is now observable along the Caucasus coast, and in some regions off the Crimean coast, it has become a regular sight, occasionally surpassing the number of bottlenose dolphins (at the entrance to Balaklava Bay, for example).
These days, the primary causes of dolphin deaths that are documented are overfishing of their primary prey (mullet, sardines, anchovies), flooding of waterways, tangles in fishing nets, and illnesses brought on by pollution.
Dolphins are not fish, but mammals
This indicates that they are viviparous creatures that breathe through their lungs and feed their young with milk. Dolphins must surface the water to breathe, and it is at this point that we often see their backs among the waves and hear the noises they make as they release expended air. The breathing hole, or "nose," of a dolphin is situated on the back of its head. Dolphins can dive tens of meters and remain underwater for up to ten minutes, although they typically only stay there for one to three minutes.
Dolphins love to play
Occasionally, upon boarding a ship, we are able to witness how dolphins settle into the bow wave and ride along with it, playing and jumping in the ebbing surf. Dolphins enjoy playing a lot. These are intelligent animals with sophisticated behavior; through games, young dolphins pick up signals, family interaction and communication guidelines, hunting techniques, and a host of other skills. Apart from beneficial educational games for cubs, dolphins appear to enjoy playing on occasion. Playing "volleyball" with a large rhizostome (a type of jellyfish) and using their muzzle to knock it out of the water makes dolphins particularly funny.
Dolphins are the best sea rescuers
Dolphins tend to live in family flocks, which could account for their innate cooperation and mutual aid. They constantly assist their injured or weak family members in staying afloat by pushing their bodies upward and keeping them from drowning. Narratives of dolphins saving the lives of drowning victims are common; dolphins are believed to regard humans as members of their family. There are many stories about dolphins saving people; some go back a long way, while others are more akin to fairy tales. Nevertheless, dolphins are still around, and there have never been any confirmed instances of them being hostile toward humans.
The Black Sea bottlenose dolphin is the most common species of dolphin in the Black Sea
It is mostly found in the Black Sea’s coastal waters. With the exception of the polar regions, this species of dolphin can be found off the coast of every continent and in every ocean. Compared to other dolphin species, bottlenose dolphins are more tolerant of captivity, making them the most sought-after performers in entertainment shows.
Pictured by Krzysztof Kowalik
They pick up tricks very quickly; according to trainers, an animal will typically be able to repeat a trick successfully at the sight of the "prize" after just one successful attempt, which is rewarded with a fish. However, if they are not rewarded at least once, dolphins can just as easily forget a lesson they have learned.
Dolphins have a big brain
They don’t need a massive brain to think; instead, they only need a lot of neurons to control a big body (blue whales and elephants have even larger brains). The dolphin brain does, however, have one special quality: it never sleeps. Dolphins must surface even when they are sleeping in order to breathe, so during the night, two hemispheres of the brain function in shifts to control diving and surfacing.
People began to study and train Black Sea dolphins in the middle of the twentieth century
Dolphins were primarily trained for the military and for entertainment. As a result of this research’s enormous success and widespread publicity, a myth about dolphins’ exceptionally high intellectual capacity quickly spread. There are times when you hear (mostly from movies) that these aquatic animals are nearly as intelligent as humans, but they just have "a different mindset." This is partially accurate; in terms of learning capacity, these mammals are now considered to be on par with dogs.
Dolphin skin is like silk
Dolphin skin is an amazing material because it can calm turbulent whirlpools, which typically cause swimming to slow down. This is yet another mystery surrounding dolphins’ extremely quick movements. Designers modeled their submarine covers after dolphin skin. Dolphin skin has a misleading appearance; it appears to be hard, shiny plastic, but when you stroke a dolphin as it swims by, it feels like you are touching silk.
Dolphins in the Black Sea are amazing animals that are well-known for their playfulness, intelligence, and special adaptations to the warm, shallow waters of the sea. These dolphins cooperate in groups to hunt and defend one another, and they have a sophisticated system of clicks and whistles for communication. They are a beloved species in the area due to their friendly interactions with humans and their exceptional hunting skills, which include echolocation and a keen sense of hearing.
Hundreds of dolphins are washed up on the Black Sea coast every year
Dolphins can intentionally swim to the shore and be thrown onto the sand by the waves, or we may hear reports of them swimming ashore. When marine mammals are poisoned or hurt (for instance, after consuming fish that have consumed toxic plankton algae), this can occur.
Researchers have found an additional explanation for dolphins’ peculiar desire to swim ashore. The power of the wave, the kind of bottom sediments, and the curvature of the shoreline can all work together to create the roar of the surf, which, amidst the cacophony of other sounds, occasionally sounds like a cry for assistance. Dolphins arrive on dry land as a result of their natural instinct to save their friends.
If a dolphin is thrown ashore, it shouldn’t be put back in the water right away because it will likely swim out of the water again due to shock. For a few days until the dolphin heals, experts suggest keeping them in a pool of seawater (such as a deep trench dug in a sandy beach).
Each Black Sea dolphin needs 10-30 kg of fish per day
Charlie Phillips in a picture
These are warm-blooded creatures that must swim quickly and maintain a body temperature of over 30 °C in occasionally extremely cold water (the Black Sea’s wintertime temperatures frequently fall below 0 °C; a person can endure these conditions for several minutes). Swimming quickly and maintaining a high body temperature in cold weather both require a lot of energy.
Dolphins’ subcutaneous fat acts as both an intracellular energy reserve and a thermal barrier to keep them warm. The blood of dolphins is heated by the burning of fat, which acts as an active heater. Dolphins only sleep at night because they must constantly hunt to replenish their fuel supplies.
They locate fish by using ultrasonic echolocation, and they quickly catch up to and encircle them. Dolphins are the fastest swimming animals in the Black Sea. Dolphins congregate in a semicircle when hunting very close to the shore; the school of fish becomes confused and is forced into the surf as a result of the rows getting tighter. At a depth of less than one meter, this can occasionally be seen: the dolphins’ pectoral fins scrape the bottom while their backs shine above the water.
Dolphins do not randomly charge at their prey after they have passed a school of fish in the water. They surround and concentrate the fish in one area (helped in this by their whistling, fin-slamming waves, and surface-jumping from the water), and then feed them in a hierarchical order, beginning with the alpha male and his female. The dolphin returns to its spot in the semicircle after receiving food.
Not only are Black Sea dolphins intelligent animals, but they are also incredibly fascinating due to their special adaptations to living in this particular environment. These dolphins are an integral part of the natural balance of the Black Sea, as evidenced by their rich historical background and critical role in the marine ecosystem.
Black Sea dolphins never cease to astound us with their playful nature in the wild and their capacity for clicks and whistles as a means of communication. They are a symbol of grace and survival in the ocean due to their gregarious personality and exceptional hunting abilities.
Although they live in the Black Sea, pollution and habitat changes pose a threat to these dolphins. Safeguarding these exquisite creatures is not only essential for maintaining biodiversity but also for guaranteeing the wellbeing of the ocean.
