Media release

From: The Royal Society

Cetaceans and conflict - Opinion Piece - The use of social media in assessing the impact of war on cetaceans
 

War has always brought millions of silent non-human victims but the scale of this suffering is often difficult to quantify. In our study we collected data on cetacean strandings along the Black Sea published in social media over the three months of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. We validate this method with a small-scale scientific study on cetacean mortality during the same period of time, conducted in “Tuzlivski lymany” Nature National Park in Ukraine. Our dual approach has produced similar results, indicating a dramatic increase in cetacean mortality due to war operations in the Black Sea. 

• Cetaceans and conflict – This opinion piece argues social media can help assess war’s impact on animals. Researchers collected social media posts about strandings of cetaceans (the group containing dolphins, porpoise and whales) along the Black Sea, during three months of the Russian invasion in 2022. When compared with cetacean mortality assessed at a Ukrainian national park in the same period, both methods showed mortality increasing sharply since the beginning of the war. Biology Letters