Popina Island

Popina Island lies in the north of Lake Razim, in Valea Nucarilor commune, Tulcea County, near the Iazurile and Sarinasuf fish farms. It covers 98 ha and rises 47 m above the water. It is a rocky island, not a sand bar: it is made of Mesozoic limestone partly covered with loess, the remnant of a continental ridge geologically related to the Măcin Plateau. During the last glaciation Popina was a hill on dry land; it became an island when the level of the Black Sea rose, about 8,000-10,000 years ago. It was declared a nature reserve from 1933 to 1941 and again from 1948 to 1994, initially managed by the Constanța Bio-Oceanographic Institute founded by Grigore Antipa. Since 1994 (Government Decision no. 248) it has been a strictly protected zone of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve. The island is a stopover for migratory birds and a nesting site for the common shelduck (Tadorna tadorna) and the ruddy shelduck (Tadorna ferruginea). In spring the common nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos), the black-headed bunting and the calandra lark stop over here. Because of its isolation, the island has kept many steppe species. Among invertebrates, the black widow spider and the centipede Scolopendra cingulata have been recorded. Landing on and entering the island are forbidden, and strictly protected zones are marked with warning signs. The island can only be viewed from a distance, from Lake Razim, about 6 km north-west of the mouth of the Dunavăț canal; the official ARBDD boat routes 5 and 6, which start in Murighiol, reach Lake Razim. Tourist travel in the reserve requires the ARBDD access permit. Popina Island is a strictly protected zone of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve and part of the Natura 2000 site ROSPA0031 Danube Delta and Razim-Sinoie Complex. The Biosphere Reserve is a UNESCO site and Ramsar wetland. Did you know that Popina is home to an insect found nowhere else in the world? The bush-cricket Isophya dobrogensis, described in 1994 by the entomologist Béla Kis, is known only from this island and is called the "Popina Plump Bush-Cricket" in English.