Danube Delta, Romania

Abstract

The Danube Delta is the second largest and best preserved of Europe’s deltas. It flows to the Black Sea and is covered with numerous lakes, ponds, and marshes which attract more than 300 species of birds and 90 species of fish. Formed over a period of more than 5000 years, it has the third largest biodiversity in the world (over 5500 flora and fauna species), exceeded only by the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and the Galapagos archipelago in Ecuador. It also is home to the world’s largest reed bed expanse, a tall, slender-leaved plant of the grass family that grows on marshy ground. Some 15,000 people inhabit the delta area, living in 28 villages and 1 city (Sulina). In 1991, it became a natural World Heritage site and also a Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Wetland Convention.