About Dolphinarium

The Dolphinarium in Constanţa began its activity on June 1, 1972, being the first museum form of this kind in our country and the first one in the S-E of Europe at that time. The exhibition presents the world of the shell fish living in diverse seas. The shows are organized in the amphitheatre with a pool, with dolphins from the Phocaena relicta species and Delphinus delphis ponticus species, with seals from the South Atlantic.

In the Black sea live three species of dolphins, that is: the sea hog, the common dolphin and the bottle-nose dolphin.The Dophinaium in Constanta hosted in its pools all the three species of a dolphin from the Black sea. The first were the porpoise (Phocoena phocoena relicta) and the common dolphins (Delphinus delphis ponticus L.1758), and about 20 years ago were brought the aphalina or big dolphins as this species is called Tursiops truncates ponticus (Montagu, 1821), from which Mark, the veteran and star of the Dolphinarium until 2009.

Since 1995, the Dolphinarium has new stars: two exemplars of sea lions (Otaria byronia) John and Lorry, originating from the coasts of South American.Recently, in 2010, the Dolphinarium bought three young bottle nose dolphins (Tursiops truncates) from Beijing Aquarium, the collaborating institution. The three specimens, one male and two female, were trained in the first two months after arrival, a Romanian-Chinese joint team.

At the moment their program is followed and continuously diversified by a Romanian team of coaches, most of them having a higher education.Through the shows carried out, through the guides and activities of ecologic education carried out, the museum biologists are trying to share with the visitors a part of their knowledge accumulated after the study and working hours with the dolphins and the sea lion.Organizing symposia, sessions of scientific communication with the specialists in the country and abroad contribute to maintaining the current level of knowledge in the field. The diverse actions dedicated to the Black Sea Days, The Dolphin’s Week and others are realized in partnership with the schools, high schools, NGOs and media representatives, for a better awareness towards the preservation aspects and environmental protection. Numerous exhibitions of various themes, diagrams and other exceptional museum forms are our specialists’ permanent concern.