More than 500 dead Caspian seals, which are an endangered species in Kazakhstan, have washed ashore in the Caspian Sea over the past two weeks, Kazakh authorities reported on Thursday, citing water pollution or disease as a possible cause of their death. TASR informs about it according to the report of the AFP agency.
The Caspian seal is the only mammal in the Caspian Sea, the world’s largest inland body of water, which is experiencing an alarming drop in water levels and rising temperatures, threatening its flora and fauna.
“From October 24 to November 7, 534 bodies of dead seals were washed ashore,” the Kazakh Fisheries Committee said, just days before the COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan, another country bordering the Caspian Sea.
“According to scientists, the possible causes of the death of these seals are marine pollution and an epidemic of infectious diseases,” the committee said. Authorities further announced that samples of the bodies in a “highly decomposed state” had been taken to a laboratory for testing and that results could take up to four months.
The population of Caspian seals fell to approximately 270,000
Kazakhstan has included Caspian seals, whose population has declined over the past century according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), headquartered in Switzerland, on the list of species at risk of extinction, and according to the authorities, their number has fallen to about 270,000.
Kazakhstan and Russia – which also border the Caspian Sea – agreed in 2021 on a “joint action plan” to protect the Caspian seal population.
The Caspian Sea is an enclosed body of water bordered by Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan, which regularly report finds of dead seals on their shores.
In 2022, Kazakh President Kasym-Žomart Tokayev promised to bring this issue “under his personal control” and proposed to create nature reserves in this area.
