The use of social media in assessing the impact of war on cetaceans

Abstract

War has always brought millions of silent non-human victims but the scale of this suffering is often either unknown, neglected or difficult to quantify. Further, the complexities associated with long-term and large-scale monitoring of marine species make it difficult to assess the impacts of war and the mortality of cetaceans resulting from warfare has not been investigated. Here we propose the use of a modified form of citizen science, namely gathering the information from social media. Dolphin stranding is such a poignant incident for most people, that the probability of eyewitness posting information on social media appears high. We test this idea by collecting data on cetacean strandings along the Black Sea published on the Internet over the three months of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. We also validate this method with a small-scale scientific study on cetacean mortality during the same period of time, conducted in ‘Tuzlivski lymany’ Nature National Park in Ukraine. Our dual approach has produced similar results, indicating a dramatic increase in cetacean mortality due to war operations in the Black Sea. We advocate the future use of social media to bridge the knowledge gap on the impacts of war on animals, in particular cetaceans.