Thousands of tern chicks have died in their shells on a spit of land in the Danube delta named for the wealth of its bird life. They are the first loss of wildlife documented as a result of a ship canal being built by the Ukraine government across the Danube Delta to the Black Sea. The canal crosses a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve that is also a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance.
Last month, representatives of Danube Biosphere Reserve and three other organizations "with sadness" documented the death of colonies of sandwich terns, Sternasandvicensis, and common terns, Sterna hirundo, that nested at the Ptichya (the Bird) spit near the Bystroe estuary.
Broken tern egg shells found by environmental observers on Ptichya spit. (Photo courtesy SEU)
On June 28 biologists recorded 950 and 430 nests in two sandwich tern colonies and 120 nests of common terns. In late July they found all the eggs were broken and no adult birds were present. "The colony abandoned the Ptichya spit," the observers said.
"The most possible case of the colony vanishing was overwhelming disturbance coming from dredging fleet and service scooters working at the Bystroe estuary," according to the Socio-Ecological Union, one of the observer groups.
"The noise coming from the working dredgers is spreading around for five to seven kilometers (three to five miles)," they said. The dredging is being conducted by the German company Moebius under contract to the Minstry of Transport of Ukraine.
The Bystroe canal project is going ahead despite pending legal challenges and warnings from Ukranian and intergovernmental organizations that the canal violates several international agreements and would destroy the fragile area.
A dredge from the German company Mobius works its way across the Danube Delta. (Photo courtesy SEU)
The Ukraine's official position is that the canal will do no harm to the delta. On July 8, at the EU-Ukraine Summit, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma stated that canal construction through Bustroye estuary is harmless to the Danube Delta's nature.
Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry representative Konstantin Grischenko told environmental organizations who asked for a thorough environmental assessment, "Canal construction to the Black Sea through Bystroe estuary does not affect ecological balance of the Danube Delta."
Logging of the reserve is about to begin. On June 17, a represenative of the company Delta-Pilot announced that logging of the Danube Biosphere Reserve will take place this summer in preparation for construction of the canal sides.
If canal construction and reserve destruction continue, the environmental groups warn, in October the Danube Biosphere Reserve may lose its UNESCO biosphere certificate.
"This will be a final stab - as then Ukrainian Government and business will be free to abolish the reserve and to use it territory for business purposes," said the Socio-Ecological Union, one of the environmental groups protesting the canal.
Pelicans on the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve (Photo courtesy SEU)
Meanwhile, the lawsuits launched by Ecopravo-Lviv, a nongovernmental international organization, are working their way through various courts.
On June 29, the Kiev Commercial court heard the case against the environmental impact assessment of the canal project. It was the second court hearing, and the court did not take any decision yet, despite the ongoing construction of the canal by the Ministry of Transport.
On June 30, the High Commercial Court of Ukraine heard the case on the withdrawal of the waters from the Danube Biosphere Reserve. "As no decision was taken it seems that the court is waiting for the political solution of the problem," said Ecopravo-Lviv.
On August 5, the Kiev Commercial Court is scheduled to conduct the next hearing of Ecopravo-Lviv's suit against the Ministry of Environmental Protection of Ukraine challenging the conclusion of the state environmental assessment of the Danube Canal – Black Sea building project.
The Danube Delta is inhabited by some 280 bird species, 70 percent of the world's white pelican population, and 50 percent of the world's pygmy cormorants. WWF and other environmental organizations are concerned that the Bystroye Canal will change the natural flow of the delta, which in turn affects breeding areas that support local fisheries in the Black Sea.
