Lockdown also had positive effects. Thanks to the improvement of the Tagus waters as well as the reduction of noise pollution, dolphins have made a massive return to Lisbon Bay. Even if it is not an extremely rare event in itself, the frequency of the last visits (almost daily) as well as the number of dolphins goes out of the usual. Lisbob, the expatriate assistant in Portugal, tells you all about the return of these special visitors: dolphins in Lisbon.
Some say that it is a legend: they can now say that it is true. The dolphins are finally back en masse in Lisbon. This Saturday, the Lisbon city hall showed incredible images of dolphins swimming in the Tagus waters.
"Everyone remembers having heard of it, the" Tagus Dolphins ", who once swam here ... And now they're back!", Wrote the municipality in a Facebook post. The Portuguese capital explains that "with the improvement of the quality of the estuarine waters, the river has come back to life" and "this friendly family of dolphins has been seen several times in the past month".
Throughout the month of June, numerous videos appeared on the social networks of these dolphins swimming in the waters between Lisbon and Almada. The 25-minute long video shows a family of dolphins, presumably in search of food and enjoying the waters of the Tagus.
Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, pollution levels in several marine ecosystems have dropped dramatically, although with the resumption of activity, analyzes show that values will soon return to pre-containment indicators.
In the Douro for example, there have not been such low levels of pollution since the 1980s. But this week, it has already been announced that the river is recording indicators of pollution return. Hopefully these visitors of such a special kind, who don't need temperature control or masks, are staying a bit longer for our enjoyment.