Dead seals were found again in Dagestan on the shores of the Caspian Sea

Carcasses of dead seals were found again in Makhachkala on Saturday. Eight animals listed in the Red Book turned out to be washed up on the coast of the Caspian Sea on the territory of the “Oasis” beach, according to the message of the administration of the Leninsky district of the city.

Earlier in January, specialists of the Caspian Nature Protection Center found more than 50 seal carcasses on the coast of Dagestan, and a month earlier, in December 2022, it became known about the death of more than 2,500 individuals. Director of the Institute of Ecology and Sustainable Development of the Dagestan State University, Alimurad Hajiev, linked the mass death of rare animals to bird flu.

In December, Rosprirodnadzor announced that the main version of the death of the seals was suffocation due to the release of natural gas. Then, signs of oxygen starvation were found in the tissues of the dead individuals. The authorities cited the same reason in 2021, when 170 Caspian seals died in the republic.

• The Caspian seal or Caspian seal is the only type of marine mammal in the fauna of Dagestan. In 2008, the International Union for Conservation of Nature assigned the status of endangered to the Caspian seal. In 2020, the animal was included in the Red Book of Russia.
• In March 2022, attention was drawn to the environmental problems of the Caspian Sea in the Russian Federation Council. The acting head of Dagestan, Sergey Melikov, speaking there, linked the problem with the quality of life in the republic. He reported on “unsanitary conditions” leading “to sad ecological consequences for the entire Caspian Sea, which are felt in other regions as well.”
• Independent ecologists talk about the anthropogenic impact on the seal population, first of all about the discharge of untreated sewage into the sea, which officials turn a blind eye to, as well as increased military exercises.