The Danube Delta (Delta Dunării in Romanian), split between Tulcea County of Romania and Odessa Oblast of Ukraine, is the largest and best preserved of European deltas, with an area of 3446 km², after the Volga Delta. The delta is located around the area where the Danube River flows into the Black Sea.
It hosts over 1,200 varieties of plants, 300 species of birds as well as 45 freshwater fish species in its numerous lakes and marshes. Around 2,733 km² of it are strictly protected areas.
This is the place where millions of birds from different places of Earth (European, Asian, African and Mediterranean) come to rest and eat during the migration seasons. Many others hatch here.
Around 15,000 people live in the Delta; most of them are living off fishing with their traditional wooden boats. It includes a community of Lippovans which are descendants of the Old Rite Followers who left Russia in 1772 to avoid religious persecutions. The main center of Lippovan community in the Ukrainian part of Danube Delta is Vilkovo.