The main version of the mass death of Caspian seals is recognized as "natural causes" that are not related to anthropogenic impact on the Caspian Sea, the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Republic of Dagestan reports in its Telegram channel.

The North Caucasus Territorial Administration of the Federal Agency for Fisheries notes that prolonged storms could be a possible cause of such a massive death. In turn, the hypothesis of toxicationof animal bodies is groundless and refuted by laboratory studies.

At the moment, the bodies of almost 2.5 thousand seals, whose species is listed in the Red Book of the Caspian states, and also recognized as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, have been found.

Being the only mammal of the Caspian Sea, this species has no natural enemies, but the population size is estimated from 70 to 300 thousand, while at the beginning of the last century this figure reached about a million.

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Photo: lenta.ru