“It seems that there are some natural causes in this case that we will try to find out,” in a conversation with ap said the head of the Center for Environmental Protection of the Caspian Sea, Zaurs Gapizov. Specialists have already started researching and analyzing the remains of the seals. Gapizov added that the reason for the mass death of animals may be not only a disease that has not yet been determined – seals can die when entering the oil pollution zone (in the Caspian Sea, where oil extraction is very active , losses occur quite often , and officials are in no hurry to react) , or (which happens much less frequently) arriving in places where there is actually no food left – fish, due to overfishing.
The Ministry of Natural Resources of Dagestan has announced that most of the dead seals were found on the beaches of the capital Makhachkala and its surroundings. “We are seriously concerned that the actual number of dead animals will be much higher, because beaches further away from the capital have not yet been inspected. That will be work for this week. But at the moment we are inclined to think that the cause” of the seals’ death are some natural factors. Not on one were oil stains not found from the animal corpses, which would indicate that it was in the pollution zone,” the ministry said, citing the information RIA Novosti. This year, three similar cases were recorded on the Kazakh coast of the Caspian Sea, but the number of dead seals was much less – only 120 animals.
Since 2008, Caspian seals have been included in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUC extension) in the red list. A hundred years ago, about a million seals lived in the sea, which have no natural enemies in the Caspian, and the population is reduced only by hunters and lack of food. Currently, the Ministry of Natural Resources of Dagestan estimates that from 270 to 300 thousand seals live in the Caspian Sea, but the estimates of the organization headed by Gapizov are much more skeptical – no more than 70 thousand.
