Ecology and behavior of cetaceans - indicator for the state of the marine environment and prerequisite for sustainable development

Global climate change, together with the significant anthropogenic pressure on the marine environment, has contributed to the deterioration of marine life conditions and the state of ecosystems. The Black Sea is an ecosystem very vulnerable to pollution, build-up, overfishing and others, which has a strong impact on coastal and territorial waters. Therefore, new and in-depth studies of the Black Sea ecosystem are needed to address the environmental problems. In the Black Sea there are three unique cetacean subspecies – harbour porpoise, common dolphin and bottlenose dolphin. They only occures here and have a high conservation status. Beeing at the top of the food chain, these subspecies are a good indicator of the state of the marine ecosystem. According to the Marine Strategy, indicators such as the distribution, number and threatened status of marine mammals, according to existing legislation and international conventions, can be indicative of the good status of the Black Sea environment. In addition, knowledge of the habitat status of cetaceans, their trophic structure, migrations and interactions with fisheries are also important. Therefore, the study of all these indicators is the subject of this project and defines its goal and co-ordinating activities. By applying modern scientific methods and techniques, the present project aims to collect unique data on the biology, ecology and behavior of cetacean mammals and their interactions with fisheries, assessing the trophic state of the environment in model areas, and the presence of heavy metals and their accumulation in the food chain. So far, marine mammals research in Bulgaria have been insufficient, making it difficult to conserve and manage these subspecies and the entire Black Sea ecosystem. The implementation of the project will contribute to the creation of a database of scientific knowledge to achieve a good state of the marine environment.

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