WATCH: Quarantine quiet brings dolphins to Beirut coastline during coronavirus lockdown
Dolphins were caught on video swimming near the Beirut shore, as coronavirus lockdown brings quiet to Mediterranean waters.
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Dolphins inhabit the Mediterranean Sea but rarely come close to urban coastlines [Getty]
Dolphins were seen close to the Lebanon's coastline this week, as coronavirus lockdowns sees wildlife return to the waters of the Middle East.
Several videos have captured pods of dolphins swimming against the backdrop of the Beirut skyline, a phenomenon attributed to the nationwide coronavirus lockdown, which has seen a sharp decrease in traffic in the Mediterranean.
According to local fisherman Farouk Dagher, who posted clips of the sea creatures on Tuesday morning, there are three pods of dolphins swimming off the Beirut coast.
In Dagher's videos, the characteristic trilling sound of the dolphins can be faintly heard on tape, as they splash serenely in the distance.
Dolphins were spotted last month at the water's edge of Istanbul's Bosphorus River near the iconic Ortaköy Mosque, which until the lockdown served as a bustling tourist hotspot.
The Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon (SPNL) has documented a rise in migratory bird nests in urban areas during the coronavirus lockdown, which it attributes to the quiet as well as the lack of bird hunting.
Residents have also reported that animals such as golden jackals have been regularly roaming through orchards unusually close to people’s homes during the lockdown period.
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