DailyExpertNews
—
About 700 endangered seals have been found dead on Russia’s Caspian coast in the northern Caucasus, local officials said on Sunday.
Caspian seals, the only mammals found in the Caspian Sea, have been listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List since 2008.
“The number of animals discovered may increase. The cause of death has yet to be determined,” the press service of the regional fisheries agency said, according to Russian state media TASS.
The seals washed up off the coast of the Russian Republic of Dagestan, along the Caspian Sea, the largest landlocked body of water in the world.
TASS said “researchers had already begun to identify the cause of the mammals’ deaths.”
The news comes after more than 140 Caspian seals were found dead on Kazakhstan beaches of the Caspian Sea earlier this year, according to KASPIKA, a Caspian seal conservation agency.
According to the IUCN, the Caspian seal population is suffering from overhunting, habitat degradation and climate change.
The Caspian Sea is bordered by five countries: Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan.
