650-700 dead seals were discovered in Makhachkala, Dagestan, on the shores of the Caspian Sea, reports the North Caucasus department of the Russian Federal Agency for Fishery.
It is not known what killed the animals. Researchers at the local branch of the Russian Federal Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography are collecting data to determine the cause of the seals’ death.
More dead seals may still wash ashore, said the Federal Fishery Agency.
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In March 2021, more than 150 endangered Caspian seals were found dead on the Caspian shore not far from Makhachkala. Many of the animals were missing their skin. The Ministry of Natural Resources suggested that fishers had caught the seals in trawl lines, and then poachers removed most of the animals’ skins and threw them back into the water.