Russia: 2,500 threatened seals wash ashore
Date
12/5/2022 12:44:57 PM
(MENAFN) The number of endangered seals discovered dead on the Caspian Sea's coast has risen to 2,500, according to authorities in Russia's southern Dagestan Republic on Sunday. Natural forces, according to regional environmental regulators, are most likely to blame for the occurrence.
According to Zaur Gapizov, director general of the Caspian Nature Protection Center, they appear to have died at least two weeks ago after being swept ashore by a storm.
“There are no signs that they were killed, no remains of fishing nets have been found,” he highlighted, noting that the domestic authorities are maintaining the examination of the coast. Gapizov went on to say that “most likely, the number of dead seals is much higher.”
The carcasses were discovered along the Yuzbash channel, as well as between the estuary of the Sulak and Shurinka rivers, according to Dagestan's Environment Ministry.
The ministry asserted that “the condition of the internal organs of the examined seals did not confirm the hypothesis that they had been poisoned with heavy metals or pesticides.”
The ministry has sent samples to laboratories in Moscow and the southern Russian city of Astrakhan. Officials stated that mass seal fatalities had also been documented in 2012 and 2016.
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