Reptiles

Mammals

About 40 dolphins washed ashore from Sarpi to Anaklia in two months

In Guchmanidze’s 17-year series this is the highest figure in ten years. The agency named no cause.

The Adjara coast. Photograph from the atlas; this is not a stranded dolphin.
Photograph from the atlas. The Adjara coast. Photograph from the atlas; this is not a stranded dolphin.

Ichthyologist Archil Guchmanidze told Batumelebi on 4 May that from 1 March to 1 May 2026 about 40 dolphins washed ashore on the Sarpi–Anaklia stretch alone. He called it the highest figure in the last ten years of his counts. He has monitored Georgian strandings for 17 years. The 40 are not split by species.

What was counted?

The number is only the stretch from Sarpi to Anaklia, over two months. Guchmanidze says his 17-year series had no such figure. On 1 June Batumelebi reports another stranding at Kvariati; that animal is not in the forty.

No cause has been named

Guchmanidze says the rise needs study and that which factor acted is not established. In May the National Environmental Agency told Batumelebi that specialists had inspected the coast, had no final information, and had not confirmed a full investigation. In June the agency wrote that it had carried out a complex study; it still did not name a cause of the strandings. This page does not guess one.

Black Sea cetaceans are not in this atlas. The mammals hub remains the main record; news only adds this count.

In the atlas

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