RESULTS OF THE CONTEST “A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A BLACK SEA DOLPHIN”

Just recently, the EU-UNDP project “European Union for Improving Environmental Monitoring in the Black Sea” (EU4EMBLAS), jointly with the student ecological team Zero Waste School: Kherson has announced the start of a new Facebook contest, “A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A BLACK SEA DOLPHIN”.

We are happy to inform that we got 140 works from all over Ukraine. It was hard for the jury to define the winners, but we managed in four categories: drawings, poems, video appeals, and stories.

In total, 15 winners were defined, and they will get power banks from the project. Other participants will get an electric torch.

Below is one of the winning stories about the dolphins in translation (author Mark Lukovsky, 13 years old, Kyiv).

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One day from the life of the Black Sea common dolphin

Hi, I do not know my name because the dolphins do not name kids at birth, but you sure know how I look. I am a Black Sea common dolphin. I have a white tummy and sides and live in the Black Sea.

Just recently, I did not have many troubles in life; the only thing I was worried about – not getting caught in dolphinariums, which I was scared of. But now my life and the life of my family have changed.

People think that the war entered their houses only. But it also centimeter by centimeter ruins my home.

Now each day, I start with observation around. My brothers and I look carefully to see if any mines or enemy warships are around. Once I almost stepped on the mine but could survive. But recently I heard that one of the dolphins died because of the mine and he was found dead on the coast. Many environmentalists worry about us, but they do not have access to the sea.

After observation, my day continues, and I look for food. I was hoping you would not laugh at me, but I found a female dolphin, and I like her a lot, so I try to find food for her as well.

I do not like evenings and nights most of all. We dolphins have excellent hearing so we can hear the sounds of missiles sent to peaceful cities. At first, this sound scared me. We got used to this sound, and our anger did not go away and will probably never go away.

I want you to know that we will not escape to another sea. We will be here! In our home! We will wait for the Ukrainian victory! Even dolphins know that it will be soon!

Glory to Ukraine!

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Below are drawings and videos awarded.