Status: 05.12.2022 16:07
Many seals die each year in the Caspian Sea due to pollution, overfishing and poaching. This year the mass extinction is worse than it has been in a long time. The cause is still unclear.
About 2,500 dead seals have been found in the Caspian Sea in the Russian republic of Dagestan. The cause of the largest mass extinction in a decade is unclear. Scientists are currently autopsiing the carcasses of the protected animals in the North Caucasus, said the head of the Russian nature conservation agency Rosprirodnadzor, Svetlana Radionova, on the Moscow television channel Rossiya-24. There are indications that the animals died from a lack of oxygen.
According to the official, escaping gas could have led to the disaster. So the animals could have suffocated. There are no signs of external violence, Radionova said.
NABU suspects an epidemic
Conservationists, on the other hand, believe it is unlikely that so many animals would die at once from a lack of oxygen. The Russian expert Vitalij Kovalev, who heads the Caucasus program at the German Nature Conservation Union (NABU) and is in direct contact with environmentalists on the Caspian Sea, said: “A gas leak can theoretically be a reason, but not as extensively as we see it now.” In his estimation, a disease could be the cause of the mass deaths – possibly a virus. Tissue samples would have to be taken to prove this.
“It is clear that the animals did not all die at the same time,” Kovalev said. The carcasses were found at various points along the coast. Because of the stormy weather, finding the cause on the high seas is not easy. It is also likely that more animals would be found.
Kovalev also said that the thesis of natural causes – as now with the lack of oxygen – is repeatedly put forward by the Russian authorities. However, independent scientists would doubt it.
Caspian seal under special protection
The Caspian seal is an endangered species and is under special protection. According to animal rights activists, their population has declined by around 90 percent over the past 100 years, as Kovalev determined for NABU. Reasons for dying are also the pollution of the Caspian Sea, where oil and gas is produced, for example. According to experts, the animals are dying from oil leaks, poaching and overfishing.
Environmental experts close to the government also called for an explanation of the mass deaths. Authorities had revised the number of carcasses found upwards several times over the weekend. They did not rule out that it will increase significantly.
On the Red List since 2008
According to NABU, the Caspian seal was included in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species in 2008 and is currently classified as critically endangered. There is no reliable data on the actual population.
According to independent estimates, there are 68,000 of originally over a million animals in the entire surface of the Caspian Sea. On the other hand, the Russian authorities speak of hundreds of thousands of remaining copies. They said the deaths of thousands of animals like this are of no consequence.