site.btaBlack Sea Countries Celebrate International Black Sea Action Day

The Black Sea countries celebrate October 31 as International Black Sea Action Day, the Environment and Water Ministry said in a press release. On this day in 1996, the Strategic Action Plan for the Environmental Protection and Rehabilitation of the Black Sea was signed by the governments of Bulgaria, Turkiye, Georgia, Romania, Russia and Ukraine.

International Black Sea Action Day draws public attention to the problems of the Black Sea basin and how to protect it, as it is one of the most vulnerable marine ecosystems in the world.

To preserve marine resources from intensive human activities, twenty-nine protected areas have been designated in the Bulgarian waters of the Black Sea under the country’s Biological Diversity Act. Those cover a total marine area of 2 821.35 km2.

Of these, the Habitats Directive designates seventeen marine protected areas covering 2 476.87 km2 and the Wild Birds Directive designates fourteen marine protected areas covering 544.89 km2. Seven types of natural habitats are protected in the aquatic part of these protected areas: permanently seawater-covered sandbanks and mudflats; estuaries; muddy-sandy coastal areas that are not covered or are barely covered by seawater; large shallow bays; reefs; submerged or partially submerged sea caves; underwater structures formed by gas seepages. The animal species of conservation concern are: two species of marine mammals - Tursiops truncatus (common bottlenose dolphin) and Phocoena phocoena (harbour porpoise); two species of fish - Alosa immaculata (pontic shad) and Alosa tanaica (Black Sea shad); and birds - the migratory yelkouan shearwater (Puffinus yelkouan), the breeding European shag (Gulosus aristotelis), among other numerous shorebird species.

In the marine areas of all seventeen habitat conservation areas, bans have been introduced on the dumping of dredged material, the use of bottom trawling and dredging equipment, and ballasting. Prohibitions on other activities related to fishing, use of marine resources and pollution have also been introduced in six of the habitat conservation areas. In the protected areas for the conservation of wild birds there is a ban on the construction of new ports, terminals and industrial plants. There is also a restriction on the construction of wind turbines for electricity generation.