Shey are up to one and a half meters long, gray and highly endangered: Caspian seals. Hundreds of the animals have now been found in the Russian republic of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea – perished.
On Saturday, a fisheries agency reported that 650 to 700 dead seals had been found. Dagestan’s Ministry of the Environment spoke of “more than 300” animals, blamed “natural environmental factors” for their deaths and announced tests, for example for the corona virus. The numbers are not “critical” because there are up to 300,000 of the seals, the ministry claimed.
On the other hand, the head of the non-governmental organization “Caspian Environmental Protection Center”, Saur Gapisov, turned on Sunday. He spoke of 1700 dead seals. The number is “probably much higher”. The animals probably died about two weeks ago and were washed up in the storm.
According to Gapisow, the population does not exceed 70,000 animals. No one knows for sure because there is no observation.
