Who hasn't been to the Black Sea coast at least once, hasn't dived into the gentle transparent wave, hasn't basked on the pebbly beaches under the rays of the summer or autumn sun, he must have lost a lot! And in warm, like fresh milk, water, of course, we have repeatedly met the inhabitants of the Black Sea: dangerous and not very dangerous. Read our article about who lives in one of the most unique seas on the planet.
Unique environment
The Black Sea, both in composition and in the nature of the settlement of living beings and vegetation, is unique and very peculiar. It is divided in depth into two different zones. Up to a depth of 150, sometimes 200 meters, there is an oxygen zone where the inhabitants of the Black Sea live. Everything below 200 meters is a hydrogen sulfide zone, devoid of life and occupying more than 85% of the water mass by volume. So living is possible only where there is oxygen (less than 15% of the territory).
Who lives here?
Inhabitants of the Black Sea - algae and animals. The first - several hundred species, the second - more than two and a half thousand. Of these, 500 are unicellular, 1900 are invertebrates, 185 are fish, and 4 are mammals.
Phytoplankton
Black Sea… Its inhabitants are all kinds of algae: ceracium, peridinium, exuviella and some others. At the very beginning of spring, the peak of algae reproduction is observed. Sometimes even the water seems to change its color, going from turquoise to blue to brown. This is due to the increased division of plankton (water bloom). Rhizosolenia, chaetoceroses, and scletonema intensively multiply. Whereas the mass reproduction of phytoplankton is timed to the beginning - the middle of summer. Among the bottom algae, phyllophora can be noted, which makes up more than 90% of the total mass. Phyllophora is common in the northwest. Cystoseira, another alga, is more common along the southern coast of the Crimean part. There are many fry feeding and living among algae (more than 30 species of fish).
Benthos
Among the animals that live on the ground or in the ground of the seabed (benthos) are various invertebrates: crustaceans and crayfish, worms, rhizomes, sea anemones and molluscs. The benthos also includes gastropods, for example, the well-known rapana, and other inhabitants of the Black Sea. The list goes on: mussel, scallop, mollusks - lamellar gills. Fish: flounder, stingray, sea dragon, ruff and others. They form a single ecosystem. And a single food chain.
Jellyfish
Permanent inhabitants of the Black Sea are jellyfish, big and small. Cornerot is a large jellyfish, very common. The size of its dome sometimes reaches half a meter. Cornerot is poisonous, it can cause injuries similar to nettle burns. They cause slight redness, burning, and sometimes blisters. To prevent this large jellyfish with a slightly purple dome from stinging, you need to take it away with your hand, holding the top and not touching the tentacles.
Aurelia is the smallest jellyfish in the Black Sea. She is not as venomous as her counterpart, but she should also be avoided.
Shellfish
Marine inhabitants of the Black Sea - mussels, oysters, scallops, rapana. All these shellfish are edible and are raw materials for gourmet dishes. For example, oysters and mussels are specially bred. Oysters are very tenacious and can go without water for about two weeks. They can live up to 30 years. Their meat is considered a delicacy.
Mussels are less refined. Sometimes a pearl is found in a large shell, usually pinkish in color. Mussels are sea water filters. At the same time, they accumulate everything that was filtered out. Therefore, they can only be eaten when carefully processed, and it is better to avoid eating mussels that have grown in the port or in other places with heavily polluted water.
Marine inhabitants of the Black Sea - scallops. This peculiar mollusk can move in water using jet force. It quickly slams the shell flaps and is carried by a jet of water over a distance of more than a meter. Scallops also have a hundred useless eyes. But with all this, this mollusk is blind! These are the mysterious inhabitants of the sea.
In the Black Sea there is also a rapana. This mollusk is a predator, and its prey is the same mussels and oysters. But it has very tasty meat, reminiscent ofsturgeon, which makes an excellent soup.
Crabs
There are eighteen species of them in the water area. All of them do not reach large sizes. The largest is red. But it is no more than 20 centimeters in diameter.
Pisces
The Black Sea is home to about 180 species of all kinds of fish, including: sturgeon, beluga, anchovy, herring, sprat, horse mackerel, tuna, flounder, goby. Rarely swim swordfish. There is a seahorse, needlefish, gurnard, monkfish.
Of commercial fish - mullet, of which there are as many as three species, pelengas, brought from the Sea of Japan and become an object of fishing. Due to severe water pollution, the number of mullet has recently decreased.
Among the original specimens - a stargazer fish or a sea cow. It burrows deep into the mud, so that one antennae is exposed on the surface, which resembles the appearance of a worm. With its antennae, the fish lures small fish and feeds on them.
Sea needle and seahorse spawn not into the water, but into the skin folds on the backs of the males, where it is until the hatching of the fry. Interestingly, the eyes of these fish can look in different directions and rotate autonomously relative to each other.
Horse mackerel is distributed throughout the coastal waters of the sea. Its length is 10-15 centimeters. Weight - up to 75 grams. Lives sometimes up to three years. It feeds on small fish and zooplankton.
Bonito is a relative of mackerel. Reaches a length of up to 75 centimeters, lives up to 10 years. This is a predatory fish that feeds and spawns in the Blacksea, for the winter goes through the Bosphorus.
Gobies are represented by 10 species. The largest is the martovik, or toad. The most numerous is round timber.
Greenfinches in the sea - 8 species. They feed on worms and mollusks. During the spawning period, nests are built between stones.
Flounder-Kalkan is also found everywhere in the Black Sea. She eats fish and crabs. Reaches a weight of 12 kilograms. Other types of flounders are also represented.
The stingray is a relative of the shark. He eats crabs, shellfish, shrimp. It has a barbed needle on its tail, equipped with a poisonous gland. Her injection is very painful for a person, sometimes even fatal.
Speaker, or sea bass, is often caught in the spring and summer when it visits these waters to spawn. It feeds on zooplankton. The weight of a perch barely reaches 100 grams. It is considered one of the main prey of the amateur fisherman.
Garfish is a fish more than half a meter long, arrow-shaped, with an elongated beak. Spawns in May - August. Migrates and winters in the Sea of Marmara.
Bluefish is a predatory and gregarious fish. It weighs up to 10 kilograms, reaches a meter in length. The body of the fish is oblong laterally. Mouth large, with large jaws. It feeds only on fish. Previously considered commercial.
Sharks
Katran (or sea dog) rarely grows up to two meters. And the cat shark (scillium) is more than a meter. These two species of sharks found in the Black Sea do not pose any danger to humans. But for many species of fish, they are fierce predators. shark meat(as well as their liver and fins) are used to prepare various dishes of the Black Sea cuisine. The liver of the katran is used to make a drug that blocks the reproduction of cancer cells.
Katran has a streamlined body, crescent-shaped mouth and sharp teeth arranged in several rows. Its body is strewn with small but sharp spines (hence the nickname - the prickly shark). Katran is a viviparous fish. The female produces up to 15 small fry at a time. Keeps and feeds katran flocks. In spring and autumn - close to the coast, in winter - at depths.
Inhabitants of the Black Sea - dolphins (toothed whales)
There are three types of them in these waters. The largest are bottlenose dolphins. A little less - white barrels. The smallest are porpoises, or Azov.
Bottlenose dolphin is the most common inhabitant of dolphinariums. For science, this species is of great importance. It is the bottlenose dolphin that scientists around the world study for the presence of intelligence. They are born circus performers. Bottlenose dolphins perform various tricks with pleasure. It seems that they really have a mind. This is not even training, but some kind of cooperation and mutual understanding between a dolphin and a person. Bottlenose dolphins understand only affection and encouragement. Punishment is not perceived at all, then any trainer ceases to exist for them.
Bottlenose dolphin lives up to 30 years. Its weight sometimes reaches 300 kilograms. Body length - up to two and a half meters. These dolphins are well adapted to the aquatic environment. Front fins act as rudder and brakessimultaneously. The tail fin is a powerful propeller that allows you to develop a decent speed (over 60 km / h).
Bottlenose dolphins have keen eyesight and hearing. They feed on fish and shellfish (eat up to 25 kilograms per day). They can hold their breath for over 10 minutes. They dive to a depth of 200 meters. Body temperature - 36.6 degrees, like a person. Dolphins breathe, periodically rising outside, with air. They suffer from the same diseases that humans do. Bottlenose dolphins sleep half a meter from the surface, under water, periodically opening their eyes.
The lifestyle of dolphins is gregarious and family (up to ten generations together). The head of the family is the female. Males are kept in a separate clan, showing interest in females mainly only during mating.
Bottlenose dolphins have great strength. But, as a rule, it is not applied to a person. With people, dolphins maintain the most friendly relations, as if with brothers in mind. In the entire long history of the relationship between man and dolphin, not a single attempt to offend the “big brother” was noticed. But people often infringe on the rights of dolphins, experimenting on them, imprisoning them in dolphinariums.
A lot has been written about the language of dolphins. We will not argue, as some scientists do, that it is richer than human speech. However, it contains a huge set of sounds and gestures, which still allows us to talk about some kind of mind of dolphins. And the amount of information that they can transmit, and a large (larger than that of a human) brain is a strong proof of this.
It remains to be added that seals are found among mammals in the Black Sea, but they have recentlyvery little time is observed due to harmful human activities.
On land
Not only marine inhabitants and the human tribe feed on seafood. Some land-dwelling birds forage in the water. Inhabitants of land that forage for food in the sea are gulls and cormorants. They feed on fish. Cormorant, for example, can swim and dive very well, eating a large amount of fish, even when full. The peculiarities of its pharynx allow it to swallow rather large prey. Thus, birds are the main inhabitants of the land, foraging in the sea of the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus and Crimea.
Black Sea: dangerous inhabitants
Not all vacationers and tourists coming to the Black Sea coast know that there are dangers for those who swim in the water. They are associated not only with storm warnings and pitfalls, but also with some representatives of the marine fauna.
Scorpionfish, or sea urchin, is one of those unpleasant surprises. Her whole head is dotted with thorns, and on her back is a prickly dangerous fin. It is not recommended to pick up a scorpionfish, as its thorns are poisonous and bring rather unpleasant, albeit short-term, painful sensations.
Stingray (sea cat) is also a danger, sometimes even fatal to humans. On the tail of the animal is a bone spike smeared with poisonous mucus. This barbed thorn sometimes inflicts lacerations that take a long time to heal. Also, from a stingray injection, vomiting may begin,muscle paralysis, increased heart rate. Sometimes death comes, so be careful.
Another seemingly inconspicuous fish - the sea dragon - is most dangerous for humans. At first glance, it can be mistaken for an ordinary bull. But on the back of this fish is a spiny fin, very poisonous. The injection is equivalent to the bite of a poisonous snake. In some cases, death is possible.
The Cornerot and Aurelia jellyfish inhabiting the Black Sea are dangerous inhabitants for humans. Their tentacles are equipped with stinging cells. A burn is possible (as from nettles and stronger), leaving traces for several hours. So it's better not to touch the jellyfish - even the dead, washed up by the waves on the pebbles.
Neither sharks nor other species of animals and fish pose a danger to people in the waters of the Black Sea. So swim safely when you come to the famous Black Sea resorts of the Crimea and the Caucasus, observing, of course, reasonable caution!
