14 DAY TRIAL // Danube Delta represents the largest wetland inside European Union. It is the nesting, stop or wintering place for over 300 species of birds, whose areal stretch from Africa and Asia, beyond the Polar Circle. This place harbors Europe's largest pelican colonies. Despite the fact that the place represents a Biosphere Reserve, it has been experiencing many aggressions.
During the communist times of Romania (until 1989), large areas of reed beds and sloughs of the delta were diked (the plan was that in the end 100,000 ha of the delta, 20% of its surface, had to enter into the agricultural circuit). This action put large areas out of the action of the annual spring flooding. The flooding brought with them huge amounts of sediments that fertilized the ecosystem. The tapping of canals leading to small lakes led to a poor oxygenation of their waters and low fish and reed production.
Moreover, the slough caused by the spring flooding were preferred by fish for spawning (the shallow waters are warmer and better oxygenated). Impeded to breed properly, many valuable fish species experienced a plummeting of their populations or a lower quality of the populations. Today, many of the diked areas inside the delta have been re-opened for the annual flooding.
On the other hand, the building of dams along the Danube River and some of its affluents decreased the amount of sediments in the flooding waters. Only the reservoir at the Iron Gates (between Serbia and Romania) retains annually 40 million tons of sediments. The waters of the most of Danube's affluents are "cleaned" of sediments.
The decrease of suspended solid matter in the waters of Danube lowered the amount of mud reaching its delta, translated into a lower fish production and slower advance of the delta into the Black Sea. This advance was of 1 m (3.3 ft) annually; today it is non-existent. Some works against soil erosion, made without preliminary ecological research, also led to the decrease in the sediments reaching the Danube.
In fact, in some places, the delta experiences a slow, but sure, advance of the sea over the ground. This phenomenon is also boosted, besides the lack of sedimentation of the Danube, by the northeastern, eastern and southeastern storms and the dominant north-south sea current, transporting the eroded material to the south.
Irrational agricultural work and wrongly-made territorial improvements turned some of the lakes of the delta into real deserts, and also altered the chemistry of the water in other places, affecting the fish and flora composition.
The mechanized and abusive harvesting of the reed led to the degradation of the reed beds and their replacement by bulrush (cattail) and sedges. This affected the population of the reed nesting birds, not to mention that these plants make the habitat for many species. This also led to a more intense activity of the predators, resulting in the imbalance of the ecosystem.
Aerial and sonic contamination grew after the spectacular increase of mechanically propelled ships in the area in the last decades.
Drainage of wastes from the chemical industry and ships washing in Danubian ports determined a severe pollution affecting the fauna of the river and its delta. Abusive hunting and poaching caused massacres among the bird populations of the delta, destroying its touristic potential.