Caspian Coast: Investigations into Seals' Mass Deaths Ongoing

Tissue samples for laboratory analysis have been collected, Orda.kz reports, citing the Ministry of Agriculture's press service.

The Veterinary Control Committee took samples to check for infectious diseases.

From October 24 to November 13, 2024, specialists from the Jaiyq-Caspian Interregional Basin Fisheries Inspectorate discovered 1,034 seal bodies washed up on the coast of the Caspian Sea in the Tupkaragan district of the Mangystau region, comments the Ministry of Agriculture.

The Fisheries Committee suggests that the cause could be a natural phenomenon, such as natural gas emissions caused by underwater earthquakes. 

Experts will receive final results only after three to four months of research.

Cases of such mass deaths have been recorded since the early 2000s. In 2000, about 10 thousand seals died, and the cause was chronic toxicosis.

The Fisheries Inspection previously suggested that poaching could be a potential cause of the seals' deaths: the animals get entangled in fishing nets and cannot escape. 

Original Author: Alina Pak