Time to read: 12 minutes(s)

"There will be a water desert here." 

Red-listed seals are dying en masse in the Caspian Sea. Some scientists blame gas or influenza, while others are convinced the cause lies in unscrupulous fishing practices. 

"Honestly, it was painful to watch," admits Muslimat, a Makhachkala resident who saw the dead seals with her own eyes. That December day, she was walking with her grandson along the seashore near the Reduktorny settlement in southeastern Makhachkala. The beach was almost empty, with only a few people wandering around. Muslimat noticed something strange near the water. Someone walking along the beach said they were seal carcasses; they had been lying on the shore for several days. 

The woman doesn't remember exactly how many there were—three, four. She thought at the time that the animals died because of the sewage that was dumped into the sea. nearbyA man also walking along the coast suggested that the seals might have gotten entangled in fishing nets and died, then washed ashore. It's unclear who is right; scientists and environmental activists have been debating the causes of the mass seal deaths for years. 

In total, more than two hundred carcasses washed up on the Caspian Sea coast last December. Most were found in the area from Makhachkala to the mouth of the Terek River. Some local residents reported on social media resented, that animal carcasses continue to decompose on the coast for weeks. Local authorities are cleaning up Have begun only on January 9th. 

This isn't the first time mass animal deaths have occurred here. Russian scientists blame underwater earthquakes, poachers, and bird flu. Environmental activists are sounding the alarm: the Caspian seal is on the brink of extinction. 

NeMoscow investigated the possible causes of the recurring disaster.

The experts who spoke to the publication asked not to be named for security reasons.

Endangered

The Caspian seal is the only mammal native to the Caspian Sea and the only pinniped species found exclusively there. Its range extends throughout the sea, from the shallow northern areas to the shores of Iran. 

The seal is listed in the IUCN Red Book, as well as the Red Books of Russia, Dagestan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan. It was added to the Russian Red Book in 2020 with the status of "rare species," although the International Union for Conservation of Nature had already classified it as "endangered" in 2008. 

Estimates of how many Caspian seals remain in the world vary. Five Caspian littoral states—Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Iran, and Turkmenistan—count them. Each uses its own methodology, making it difficult to obtain accurate information, a representative of the non-profit Caspian Nature Conservation Center explained to NeMoskva. 

According to the Center, the population is estimated at 60–80 individuals. All-Russian Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography calls the figure is even lower - 43-66 thousand according to monitoring conducted in 2019 year. Moreover, according to his data, the population has decreased by 77,5% since the beginning of the 20th century. But the Dagestan Ministry of Natural Resources считаетThere are 270–300 seals left. They claim the population is stable. 

"There isn't a single authoritative source that has microchipped and counted all the seals," explains an ecologist from the Caspian Nature Conservation Center.   

Storms, gases, flu… 

Over the past ten years, mass seal deaths have occurred several times. In November 2016, approximately 300 carcasses washed up on the Caspian coast. The same number were found in December 2020. In May 2021, more than 170 bodies were found on the seashore. The largest mammal death occurred in December 2022, when a seal died on the Caspian Sea coast in Dagestan. found two and a half thousand dead seals. In December 2023, on the Dagestani coast again found about 130 carcasses. In November 2024, about a thousand animals threw away to the shores of the Caspian Sea in Kazakhstan. 

The reasons for death are given differently each time. 

In 2016, journalists statedthat it was mainly the older individuals who died, and this probably happened because of long storms that “accelerated natural death.” 

In 2020, scientists from the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences came to the conclusionthat a natural gas release could have been the cause of death. The institute's report states that all the seals examined showed similar changes in tissue and blood vessels, indicating hypoxia and suggesting death by asphyxia. Researchers note that the Caspian Sea basin as a whole is characterized by various forms of oil and gas seepage, including mud volcanoes. griffinsAccording to their version, the seals died from breathing in the wrong stuff. 

In 2021, the Ministry of Natural Resources suggestedthat the seals were caught in fishing trawls and then dumped into the sea by poachers. 

In 2022, bird flu was blamed for everything. Then, on Maly Zhemchuzhny Island—the main Caspian seal rookery in the Northern Caspian— fixed The mass death of birds from this disease. The virus could also have affected seals, the Institute of Ecology and Sustainable Development at DSU suggested. "Even bears in Alaska are dying from bird flu," the institute's director, Alimurad Gadzhiev, claimed at the time. 

Kazakhstani scientists have suggestedA viral infection may have been the cause of the mass death of seals washed up on the coast of Kazakhstan in November 2024. They reached this conclusion through molecular genetic analysis. 

Mirgaliy Baimukanov, Director of the Institute of Hydrobiology and Ecology of Kazakhstan, stated at the time that the deaths of most of the animals washed ashore were unnatural and sudden, as 60% of the dead females were pregnant, and the males "were well-fed." "In other words, they were young and viable before their death," Baimukanov noted.

To the Ministry of Natural Resources of Dagestan claimIt's known that seals die en masse during migrations. The animals breed only on ice, and ice exists only in the Northern Caspian. In the spring, they migrate from north to south, and back again in the fall. During migration, says a representative of the Caspian Nature Conservation Center, they are exposed to "various events," including storms, being caught in nets, and being exposed to gas emissions. 

The ecologist believes the latter is the most likely cause. He explains that the animals pass over large hydrocarbon deposits, through areas where methane-propane-butane mixtures containing hydrogen sulfide are released, caused by underwater earthquakes. The gases rise to the surface and can literally drift along the water because they are heavier than air. The seals spend 10-15 minutes underwater and then surface to breathe. They try to take in oxygen but inhale a gas mixture. This is how they die from asphyxiation. 

A "natural phenomenon" that recurs periodically every three to five years, считает Magomedrasul Magomedov, a leading researcher at the Caspian Institute of Biological Resources of the Dagestan Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, expressed his opinion on the mass death of Caspian seals in November 2024 at the International Scientific Conference "Caspian Seal: An Indicator of the State of the Caspian Ecosystem," which Passed In Makhachkala, the meeting was prompted by the mass deaths of seals. 

However, at the same time, Magomedov noted that it was not possible to definitively determine the cause of death, “despite numerous pathological examinations and bacteriological sample analyses.” 

…wastewater, shallowing of the sea…

The exact cause is truly difficult to understand, as up to several weeks pass between death and the carcass reaching the shore, a representative of the Caspian Nature Conservation Center confirmed in a conversation with NeMoskva. 

He himself names another probable cause of the seals’ death: pollution of the Caspian Sea with untreated sewage. 

"The sea is so polluted it's visible to the naked eye. The fish the seals eat can poison them," the ecologist says.  

According to Rosprirodnadzor, from the territory of Dagestan to the Caspian Sea every year is reset About 850 million cubic meters of dirty wastewater. About 80 million cubic meters are completely untreated, and the rest are insufficiently treated. These volumes are so large that the Caspian simply doesn't have time to clean itself. comments Head of the Caspian Institute of Biological Resources of the Far Eastern Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences Nukhkadi Rabazanov.  

In cities, wastewater treatment plants do not cope Despite the volume of wastewater, villages lack proper treatment. Industrial enterprises, factories, and agricultural facilities located in the coastal zone contribute to the pollution by discharging industrial and sewage waste into water bodies without proper treatment due to the deterioration or lack of treatment facilities. 

In 2023, environmental activists reported that since 2018 found Around 100 outlets flow into the Caspian Sea and river estuaries in close proximity to the coast. Most of the city's wastewater merges right in the sea near the beach. In polluted water, comments Infectious disease specialist Islam Magomedov says it can detect fungi, parasites, hepatitis A viruses, and bacteria that cause cholera, typhoid fever, salmonellosis, and other diseases. 

Another factor affecting the seal population is the shallowing of the sea, which significantly alters the region's ecosystem: it reduces available habitat for the mammals, reduces food availability, and increases competition for resources. According to a representative of the Institute of Ecology and Sustainable Development at DSU, Chechen Island, located north of the Astrakhan Peninsula, is now accessible by car—the water has receded, effectively creating a land passage. 

Since 2011, the Caspian Sea level decreased by 1,74 metersOver the past three years, it has fallen particularly rapidly. In 2021, by 20 cm, in 2022, by 27 cm, and in 2023, by 29 cm. This is due to a reduction in freshwater inflow from the Volga, Ural, Terek, and other rivers. A significant amount of it remains in reservoirs, which "leads to significant losses," says Professor Vyacheslav Zaitsev, head of the Department of Hydrobiology and General Ecology at Astrakhan Technical University.

"In fact, everything has an impact. Shallow water, declining food supply, global warming..." lists our interlocutor from the Caspian Nature Conservation Center. "Seals only breed on ice, and there's less ice. They feed on fish, and the fish population in the Caspian Sea has also declined due to illegal fishing and wastewater pollution."

…and trawling

Two versions - mass poaching of seals and water hammer During military exercises and the Caspian Flotilla's operations, sources in the scientific community dismiss the possibility. In the second case, explains a researcher at the Caspian Institute of Biological Resources of the Dagestan Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, brain hemorrhages, fractures, and other typical injuries would be observed, but scientists don't detect them. As for the first case, a representative of the Caspian Nature Conservation Center comments that the capture of endangered species causes more problems than benefits—the fines are enormous, up to one and a half million rubles. 

However, according to a representative of the public organization "Ecologist of Dagestan," fishing in the Caspian Sea is still responsible for the death of animals. 

The interviewee blames sprat trawling for everything. This is a method of catching fish in which a bag-shaped net—a trawl—is towed behind a vessel using steel cables. The area combed by the bottom trawl becomes lifeless: corals are destroyed, and algae, which provide habitat for marine life, are torn out. The silt that the net lifts up kills plants and clogs the gills of fish, especially harmful to fry and young fish.

"They're plowing our seabed, which is where the fish feed. It's a barbaric method. They're just trying to make money today, and what happens tomorrow is irrelevant. The Caspian Sea will soon become a dead sea," the source comments. 

Bottom trawling in the Caspian and Black Seas was banned back in the 1970s and 80s. Mid-water trawls, which are not supposed to touch the bottom, were used instead. However, these trawls are designed for fishing in oceans with depths of 500–900 meters or more. And they are used 100 meters from the Caspian coast, where "there are no such depths anywhere near," according to a letter from Ecologist Dagestan to the Dagestani branch of the All-Russia People's Front (ONF).available to the editors). It was written in 2022 at the request of former employees of the Port-Petrovsk fishing company. 

In 2020, this company already voiced The bottom trawling problem was addressed and the group proposed "pushing the boundaries of vessel operations away from the shore as quickly as possible," where the trawls' impact is most detrimental. "Fish is cheap and profitable if it's caught near the shore. But if you move further, new expenses arise, such as fuel and the like," the fishermen explained. They concluded: "The price of such barbarism is high: in two or three years, this area will be a water desert." 

"The cause of the mass death of Caspian seals must be sought in trawling vessels," is the conclusion reached after the mass death of seals in the Caspian Sea in 2020. has come and marine mammal biologist Vladimir Burkanov. He believes the seals are pulled into the trawl, where they suffocate. There are no physical injuries left on their bodies, making it difficult to determine the exact cause of death. 

The expert is convinced that signs of asphyxia in the dissected animals indicate "accidental bycatch and death in fishing gear," which the fishermen "will, of course, deny" because they don't want the problems associated with killing endangered species. A representative of Ecologist Dagestan is convinced that they simply throw the dead seals overboard, and when storms hit, the carcasses wash ashore. 

The addressee of the activists' appeals is the local branch of the All-Russian People's Front (ONF) on their social networks declares, who has been working on this "story" since 2016. It was allegedly on his initiative that the Caspian seal was listed in the Dagestan Red Book in 2019. To preserve the population, the ONF proposes developing a program and signing an agreement between the Caspian countries. However, the organization has not made any public statements regarding the impact of trawling on the species' extinction. When we asked about this, the press service of the Dagestan Popular Front declined to answer, citing the busy schedule of its leadership. 

Participants in the conference on seal conservation released a report following their meetings resolution, which states that, yes, the Caspian states do indeed lack overall coordination. Scientists "consider it necessary" to create a joint research center for the five countries. How feasible this is today, how the process will progress, how long it will take, and whether the seals have the time is unclear.