Dagestan –
At least 2,500 heads seal found stranded along the coast of the Caspian Sea, Russia. Local authorities are still investigating the cause of the discovery of thousands of seal carcasses.
As reported AFP extensionTuesday (6/12/2022), investigators are still working to find out why seals have flocked to area beaches DagestanSouthern Russia.
The head of Russia’s Natural Resources Agency Svetlana Radionova said local authorities were tentatively leaning on suffocation gases released from the ocean floor as the “primary” cause of the deaths of thousands of endangered seals .
He also said the first results of the investigation were expected by the end of the week. The investigation will determine whether water pollution was a contributing factor in this case.
In an interview on local television, Rossiya-24, Radionova revisited a similar disaster in 2020, when 2,000 dead seals washed ashore on the coasts of Dagestan and Azerbaijan.
The Caspian Sea, which is the largest deep water in the world, borders five countries, namely Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkmenistan. The seal population in the Caspian Sea has been in decline for years due to overhunting and the effects of industrial pollution.
Experts estimate that there are now an estimated 68,000 seals in the Caspian Sea. That number has dropped dramatically since the early 20th century, when more than 1 million seals were recorded in the ocean.
Pollution from oil and gas extraction, coupled with lowering water levels due to climate change, is already posing a threat to many species and jeopardizing the future of the oceans.
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(nvc/ita)
