MAKHACHKALA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th December, 2020) An inquiry is underway into the mass death of seals ashore the Caspian Sea in Russia's Dagestan, Azamat Guseynbekov, the North Caucasian republic's deputy minister of natural resources and environment, told Sputnik on Sunday.
Dagestani locals disseminated images and videos showing numerous dead pinnipeds known as Caspian seal in the sea surf. At least 17 dead seals were found ashore between the Dagestani cities of Makhachkala and Kaspiysk, acclaimed Russian rescuer Ziyavdin Nikomagomedov said, adding that the waters have been exceptionally dirty in the Caspian Sea recently.
"This is not our remit, but I tasked one of my employees to visit the site, take pictures, file a report and submit it to Rosprirodnadzor and Rosrybolovstvo [two Russian Federal agencies for the oversight of environment and fisheries, respectively]," Guseynbekov said.
Chinese poaching nets with illegal fine mesh or the discharge of wastewater into the Caspian Sea could be behind seals' mass death, according to Zaur Gapizov, the director of the Caspian Conservation Center non-profit.
"As a rule, the main reasons behind Caspian seals' death is either Chinese fine mesh poaching nets or the discharge of untreated wastewater into the Caspian Sea. We pursue a complete ban on the use and sale of Chinese plastic nets in our territory," Gapizov told Sputnik.
According to the activist, their organization plans to establish a rehab for seals in Dagestan in the near future and install contact detail stalls on the coast which people can call to report a dead or injured sea animal.
Two waves of mass death of Caspian seals were recorded in Russia in 2016 and 2011, with the cause not determined in either of them.
