Fantastic Delta

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDqRPyG__Lo&feature=player_embeddedThe Danube River is the most international river on the planet - its course runs across — or forms a part of the borders of  several countries: Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, and four capitals: Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest and Belgrade.
• Formed over a period of more than 10,000 years, the Danube Delta continues to grow due to the 67 million tons of alluvia deposited every year by the Danube River.
• The Delta is formed around the three main channels of the Danube, named after their respective ports: Chilia (in the north), Sulina (in the middle), and Sfantu Gheorghe (in the south).
• The Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve has the third largest biodiversity in the world (over 5,500 flora and fauna species), exceeded only by the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and the Galapagos Archipelago in Ecuador.
• The Danube Delta is home to over 60% of the world’s population of pygmy cormorants (phalacrocorax pygmeus), 50% of red-breasted geese (branta ruficollis) and the largest number of white pelicans (pelecanus onocrotalus) and Dalmatian pelicans (pelecanus crispus) in Europe.
• It also is home to the world’s largest reed bed expanse – 625, 000 acres / 240,000 ha.
• Some 15,000 people inhabit the Delta area, living in 28 villages and one city (Sulina).
• The area was first attested by Herodot of Halicarnas (484 – 425 B.C.).
• More then half of the Delta Biosphere Reserve is virtually intact.