scholarly journals The first record of a piebald common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) in offshore waters of the north-western Black Sea

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (19) ◽  
pp. 103-107
Author(s):  
Oksana Savenko ◽  
◽  

Piebaldism is one of three types of hypopigmentation of animals, when some areas on the skin have no pigments. Anomalously white cetaceans are rare, although they have been reported in more than 20 different cetacean species, including the common bottlenose dolphin, which in the Black Sea is recognized as an endangered endemic subspecies — the Black Sea bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus ponticus Barabash-Nikiforov, 1940). Its main habitat in the north-western Black Sea region is the coastal waters, however, these dolphins also occur offshore. Thirty cases of anomalously white bottlenose dolphins have been reported from the Black Sea, which were unevenly distributed, and only a few sightings have been reported from the north-western Black Sea. Cetacean observations were conducted in the Ukrainian part of the north-western Black Sea waters in April 2017, onboard the research vessel "Auguste Piccard". All encountered cetaceans were photographed, and individual distinctiveness of dorsal fin images was used for their photo-identification. On 13 April 2017, four groups of up to four individuals of bottlenose dolphins were encountered in the same area at a distance of 61 km south of Odesa (34 km from the nearest coast). The depth at the observation site was about 20 m. The initially observed type of dolphins’ behavior was feeding. However, two groups changed their behavior and followed the vessel by 5–6 individuals for approximately 18 minutes. The joint group consisted of adults and one juvenile individual. Among the adults, there was one piebald specimen with white patches on its dorsal fin, peduncle, and tail fluke. The piebald dolphin was photographed and photo-identified. Our research has shown that piebald Black sea bottlenose dolphins occur not only in the coastal waters, but also in offshore waters of the north-western Black Sea. However, the frequency of such hypopigmentation in local populations remains unknown. Further intensive photo-identification and genetic sampling of local stocks of the Black Sea bottlenose dolphins are necessary for the assessment of their population genetic structure and its divergence.

Zootaxa ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 4379 (3) ◽  
pp. 448
Author(s):  
SOPHIA M. SÁNCHEZ ◽  
LIAT Y. GOLDSTEIN ◽  
NORMAN O. DRONEN

Cobbold (1858) established Diphyllobothrium Cobbold, 1858 with the description of Diphyllobothrium stemmacephalum Cobbold, 1858 from the common harbor porpoise, Phocoena phocoena (Linnaeus) (Phocoenidae), from the North Sea off Scotland. Diphyllobothrium stemmacephalum typically has been reported from a number of Phocoenidae and Delphinidae hosts from a variety of localities: common harbor porpoise from the northern Atlantic Ocean, Baltic Sea and Black sea (e.g. Cobbold, 1858; Delyamure 1955; Delyamure 1968; Delyamure 1971; Delyamure et al. 1985; Anderson, 1987); bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops truncatus (Montagu), from the Gulf of Mexico (Ward & Collins 1959), the Black sea (Delyamure et al. 1985); common harbor porpoise off Newfoundland (Brattey & Stenson 1995), the Black Sea (Krivokhizin & Birkun 1994 [see Yera et al. 2008]), off Denmark (Herreras et al. 1997); long-finned pilot whale, Globicephala melas [Traill], North Atlantic off Faroe Island (Balbuena & Raga 1993); Atlantic white-sided dolphin, Lagenorhynchus acutus [Gray], off Massachusetts (Olson & Caira 1999). 


2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (5) ◽  
pp. 387-394
Author(s):  
S. A. Kudrenko

Abstract The data about the community composition, number and biomass of amphipods in three gulfs of the North-Western Black Sea are presented. The amphipod communities of the gulfs of Yahorlyk, Karkinit, and Tendra were studied and the species composition was compared with the previously published data. For each particular gulf, the list of amphipod species was composed. The quantitative parameters of the amphipod communities in the studied localities in different years were described.


Author(s):  
Paul Huddie

The year 2014 marked the 160th anniversary of the beginning of the Crimean War, 1854–6. It was during that anniversary year that the names of Crimea, Sevastopol, Simferopol and the Black Sea re-entered the lexicon of Ireland, and so did the terms ‘Russian aggression’, ‘territorial violation’ and ‘weak neighbour’. Coincidentally, those same places and terms, and the sheer extent to which they perpetuated within Irish and even world media as well as popular parlance, had not been seen nor heard since 1854. It was in that year that the British and French Empires committed themselves to war in the wider Black Sea region and beyond against the Russian Empire. The latter had demonstrated clear aggression, initially diplomatic and later military, against its perceived-to-be-weak neighbour and long-term adversary in the region, the Ottoman Empire, or Turkey. As part of that aggression Russia invaded the latter’s vassal principalities in the north-western Balkans, namely Wallachia and Moldavia (part of modern-day Romania), collectively known as the Danubian Principalities. Russia had previously taken Crimea from the Ottomans in 1783....


Author(s):  
Elena Gladilina ◽  
Olga Shpak ◽  
Valentin Serbin ◽  
Anna Kryukova ◽  
Dmitry Glazov ◽  
...  

The Black Sea subspecies of the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus ponticus) is threatened and has a small range. Its population structure is little known: it possibly includes a few local coastal populations. We assessed connectivity between coastal groupings in six localities along 800 km of the coastline based on records of photo-identified animals between 2004 and 2014. Abundance of these groupings, as estimated, ranged between 76 and 174 individually distinctive dolphins. In total, there were 350 identified individuals, of which 91 (26%) were resighted within the same areas. However, only three cases of individual movements between local coastal populations were recorded at the distances between 135 and 325 km. Therefore, despite the absence of physical barriers, the coastal Black Sea population is fragmented into numerous resident or locally migrating groupings with site fidelity. These local populations are loosely connected to each other with rare movements between them. This fragmentation can be a factor contributing to short-term fluctuations in abundance of Black Sea bottlenose dolphins and their decline in some localities, despite the potentially high population growth rate.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 33-39
Author(s):  
V. A. Grintsov

An illustrated description of morphology of Monocorophium insidiosum Crawford, 1937 from the Crimean coastal waters is given. In this work, 744 specimens from different locations and substrates of the Crimean coastal waters have been analyzed. The main specific parameters of species from the Crimean coastal waters are as follows: rostrum of males is about one half of first article of antenna I length, dactylus of gnathopod II is equipped with 2–4 additional spines along the inner side (both for males and females). Variability is observed in parameters of the following parts: first article of antenna I peduncle, fourth article of antenna II peduncle, inner side of gnathopod II dactylus, and outer sides of the outer and inner rami of uropod II. Morphological parameters of specimens from the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea (literature data), and the North America coast (Vancouver area, literature data) have been compared. Specimens from the Black Sea are morphologically similar, but have some differences from the North American ones. In particular, first article of antenna I peduncle of specimens from the North America have conical process (specimens from the Black Sea have rounded process); fifth article of antenna II peduncle is with proximal medial tooth (specimens from the Black Sea are without proximal medial tooth); and outer ramus of uropod II has medial spine (Mediterranean specimens are without such a spine). These differences should be taken into account when carrying out hydrobiological research.


2020 ◽  
pp. 105-114
Author(s):  
Yu. S. Tuchkovenko ◽  
O. S. Matygin ◽  
V. Yu. Chepurna

Increasing the draught of ships that may be accepted by ports for loading at their loading berths is one of the main tasks aimed at development and freight turnover enhancement of sea trade ports located in Odesa Region of the north-western part of the Black Sea (cities of Chornomorsk, Odesa and Pivdennyi). An operational forecasting of short-term sea level fluctuations caused by storm winds presents a critical task for ensuring safe navigation across the ports’ water area and approach channels. The article is devoted to analysing and discussing the results of tests of a simplified 2D hydrodynamic model designed for forecasting such phenomena as upsurge and downsurge of the sea level caused by storm winds in the vicinity of sea ports in Odesa Region of the north-western part of the Black Sea. Spatio-temporal variability of wind conditions at the sea-to-atmosphere boundary was set based on the data retrieved from a 10-day synoptic forecast using global atmospheric prediction model GFS (Global Forecast System). The study analyses the results of forecast of significant (the ones exceeding 30 cm) short-term sea level drops and rises at the ports which were observed in 2016, 2017 and 2020. It was established that, in case of use of the GFS forecast data, the pattern of sea level denivellations caused by storm winds and their amplitude in the majority of events start approximating to the observed values provided the forecast has a 4-day lead time. Therefore the accuracy of wind conditions variability forecast with application of the GFS model having a longer lead advance time is not sufficient for forecasting the sea level fluctuations caused by storm winds.  The study made it possible to get an acceptable equivalence between the values of sea level denivellation amplitudes which were forecast with a 1-to-3-day lead time and the ones observed afterwards. In particular, when the forecast lead time is equal to »2 days, in relation to the expected storm conditions, the average absolute error for the forecast of sea level fluctuations amplitude constituted 7-8 cm, while its permissible value was defined as 15 cm, and the average relative error – 16-18%. It allowed making a conclusion that a hydrodynamic model option, applied alongside with the forecasting information on wind conditions variability retrieved with the help of the GFS weather prediction model, may be used for operational forecasting of short-term sea level fluctuations caused by storm winds with the forecast lead time of up to 4 days.


GEODYNAMICS ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 2(11)2011 (2(11)) ◽  
pp. 55-57
Author(s):  
N. K. Haidai ◽  
◽  

Spatial integral geological and geophysical model of the north-western shelf of the Black Sea has been created and conformed with available geological and geophysical information and gravity field. Based on the results, spatial location of certain tectonic elements has been specified; priory directions and objects of the geological exploration have been defined.


2020 ◽  
Vol 236 ◽  
pp. 106630 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Miladinova ◽  
A. Stips ◽  
D. Macias Moy ◽  
E. Garcia-Gorriz

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