Project Finds High Cetacean Death Rate, Invasive Species In Black Sea

Sofia, February 10 (BTA) - A high death rate among cetaceans and a loggerhead turtle which entered the Black Sea from the Mediterranean are among the observations under an eco-project 'Black Sea Watch'. The project will be completed in mid-February, project head Dimiter Popov told a BTA-hosted news conference Friday.

The project is a joint initiative of the Bulgarian NGO Green Balkans and TUDAV, Turkey, aims to raise public awareness on biodiversity of the Black Sea - a fragile ecosystem facing many threats. The developed tools - mobile application for smart phones and website - intend to raise knowledge about the flora and fauna inhabiting the Black Sea and to promote involvement of the public into 'citizen science in the region. Collection of data and its submission by users will contribute to studies on occurrence and distribution of different species in the Black Sea. The application is in Bulgarian, Turkish and English.

To date there are 200 registered users who have submitted over 100 approved observations of 58 species from 11 groups of organisms. The largest number of approved observations concern birds and sea mammals. The catalogue has been complemented with 11 new species, including a loggerhead sea turtle in Romania. Rare birds were also observed along the Black Sea coast - white-headed duck, flamingo and red-breasted goose.