Cetacean strandings in the Turkish Western Black Sea coast during 2007-2009

The seasonal surveys of stranded cetaceans were performed on the Turkish coast of the western Black Sea during summer 2007-spring 2009. Fifty stranded cetaceans were found, which included 24 harbour porpoises (48%), 15 bottlenose dolphins (30%), 6 common dolphins (12%) and 5 unidentified specimens. Most of the stranding cases were observed during the summer of 2007 (0.3 individuals per km). During the winters, there was no observation of harbour porpoise stranding. Eight individuals showed some evidence of net entanglement. This is the first seasonal study on cetacean strandings in Turkey.