Around 2,500 seals have been found dead on the Caspian coast in southern Russia. The circumstances of the death of these animals are still unclear, but local authorities suspect natural causes.
Zaur Gapizov, head of the Caspian Environmental Protection Center, said in a statement: quoted by The Guardian newspaperthat the seals probably died a few weeks ago, underscoring that there is no sign that they were killed or caught in fishing nets.
According to the Associated Press, experts from the Federal Fisheries Agency inspected the site and found no contaminants. Authorities are now awaiting the results of laboratory tests.
It is not known for certain how many seals there are in the Caspian Sea. The Federal Fisheries Agency puts the total number at between 270,000 and 300,000, while the Caspian Center for Environmental Protection puts it at 70,000.
Caspian seals are classified as endangered species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list.
Source: TSF
