Nearly 170 seals of an endangered species have been found dead over the past three days on the shores of the Caspian Sea, in the Russian republic of Dagestan, researchers from the
Moscow “
Marine Mammals
” research center said Thursday, May 6
.
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"
These are dead animals that we saw, photographed and whose GPS coordinates we noted
," said Viktor Nikiforov, scientist at this research center. Images show several carcasses washed up on the beach. According to the researcher, the seals were found in an area 100 kilometers south of Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, and in another about fifty kilometers north of this city.
“
It may be linked to industrial pollution, fishing or poaching, when seals get caught in the nets, or even the consequences of climate change. Or to several of these causes at the same time
, affirmed Viktor Nikiforov. According to him, it would now take a "
serious surveillance
" for more than a year of the seals found dead to precisely identify the causes of the disaster. The Russian Federal Fisheries Agency in the North Caucasus said it had sent inspectors there to carry out a new count. The Investigation Committee, responsible for the main investigations in Russia, also announced that it had launched checks.
The Caspian Sea, the largest closed sea in the world, borders five countries: Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan. At the start of the 20th century, it had more than a million seals (Pusa caspica), of which only 68,000 adult specimens remain today, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which considers the
endangered
species
. Hunted intensely until recently, this mammal now suffers mainly from industrial pollution which makes it sterile in particular.
According to the UN, this pollution is linked to the oil industry, radioactive and industrial waste, or even large volumes of wastewater. The flora and fauna of the Caspian are also suffering from the drop in sea level caused by climate change, with rising temperatures causing water to evaporate.