Turkey has a long coastline, more than 8300 Km, and several islands. It is surrounded by four seas of different oceanographic characteristics.
Every year several hunderds of dolphins are drowned in gill nets and stranded ashore between early April and June in the Black Sea. Large numbers of Phocoena phocoena, Tursops truncatus also die as a result of incidental catch during the sole, turbot and sturgeon fishing season. They are discarded at the sea and sometimes washed up to the shore.
Bycaught and stranded animals are good sources of information about cetacean biology, especially where the fishery is forbidden and the bycaught animals are hard to find. Turkey, however, has a long coastline on the Black Sea, Aegean Sea and Mediterranean coasts, and it is impossible for a few institutions to cover the entire coastline to find cetacean strandings. Several meetings have been held for establishing a stranding network in Turkey, but due to the lack of fund, they have not been so successful. Therefore, a well-organized stranding network is essential to cover the entire coastline to be able to maximize the use of specimens. Consequently, a national database should be established, so that the data can be shared with interested parties.

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