About 2,500 dead Red Book seals were found on the shores of the Caspian Sea. According to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of Dagestan, the number of dead animals continues.
“Unfortunately, the figure has increased significantly and is now 2,500 people. The bodies were found in different places,” he said.
The largest number of dead was found in the Yuzbaş region and also between the mouths of the Sulak and Shurinka rivers.
“This is the biggest death of the Caspian seal in the last ten years. The cause will be determined after laboratory examinations of the pathological material taken from dead animals.
Zaur Gapizov, director general of the Caspian Conservation Centre, said the seals died about two weeks ago and there were no violent deaths or remnants of fishing nets.
The main version of the mass death of animals is natural factors.
oxygen starvation
Svetlana Radionova, head of Rosprirodnadzor at Russia-24 TV channel, said the seals found in Dagestan may have died due to hypoxia, but the investigation is still ongoing.
“Scientists are currently studying animals. According to preliminary data, we see traces of hypoxia, which is such a change in the body of animals caused by oxygen starvation,” he said.
At the moment, according to the main version of scientists, emissions of natural gas led to the death of animals.
According to Radionova, experts do not observe mechanical damage to the seals’ bodies from fishing gear. The version of animal poisoning was also not confirmed.
“We are not yet seeing environmental pollution in the form of some heavy fractions in the water, we took four samples yesterday, we are sampling today, by the end of the week the water samples will be clear to us but at the moment there are some acute poisonings in Animals that scientists have not recorded,” he said.
According to him, “many institutions” took part in examining 320 km of coast and animal remains, taking water samples, and “the best specialists” go there.
Why does oxygen starvation occur?
In an interview with socialbites.ca, head of the Center for Research and Conservation of Marine Mammals Vyacheslav Alekseev talked about a number of possible reasons why seals can experience oxygen starvation.
“The causes of oxygen starvation are the inability of the animal to reach the sea surface and breathe for some reason. If there are no signs of an infectious or viral disease in which the animal loses its ability to breathe normally, saturate the blood with oxygen, if there is no poisoning, there is no poisoning with some poisons that also affect the respiratory system. ”
According to him, a marine animal can die of oxygen starvation in winter if, after diving, it has nowhere to rise to the surface and breathe because of the ice.
“The second reason is that the animals get on a kind of fishing gear… The fish get in there and can’t find a way out. Here the seals often follow him up to these gears, and when they realize that they need to breathe, they start running around the aquarium, they cannot find a way out, they experience oxygen starvation and die.” said the expert.
He urged analyzing what happened “too rigorous, corrosive and in-depth”.
“In order to take measures to support these animals, it is necessary to uncover the underlying essence of the processes that take place. Is it possible to fight them at all, or are these natural processes, ”said Alekseev.
virus or biolab
The cause of death of seals in Dagestan may be plague or a new virus. According to the Telegram channel Mash, this is evidenced by the state of the liver of the individuals studied.
State Duma deputy Abdulkhakim Gadzhiev accused “US biolaboratories” of the death of the seals. He called for the declassification of the activities of American biological laboratories “dispersed almost all over Russia’s borders”.
“What are the Pentagon “scientists” virologists doing in them? Creation is unlikely… And with the start of the NWO in Ukraine, American laboratories were hastily disbanded and equipment and research results were taken. It seems that there is something to hide,” said Gadzhiev.
He promised to send proxy requests to various departments to resolve the issue and said, “We’ve been observing the death of seals for over a year.”
“Hundreds of them were found on the Caspian coast. But now the bill is in the thousands. “The issue is very serious, it worries the public a lot,” he said.
Not the first mass death
The Ministry of Natural Resources of Dagestan reported that the number of Caspian seals is stable between 270 and 300 thousand. According to the Caspian Environmental Center, approximately 70,000 individuals of the Caspian seal live in the sea.
The Caspian seal is the only endemic marine mammal species living in the Caspian Sea, which plays a unique role in the marine ecosystem. It reaches a length of 160 cm, body weight – up to 100 kg. It feeds on fish and has no natural enemies as an adult.
It is not the first time that seals have died in the Caspian.
“This is the second mass case in our country in the last two years. It was recorded in 2020 both on the territory of Azerbaijan and Dagestan … We will gather a round table and see what scientists will offer us, ”said the head of Rosprirodnadzor. According to the Federal Fisheries Agency, the death of the seals in December 2020 was not so great, 300 dead people were found.
The Ministry of Natural Resources of Dagestan noted that the death of the Caspian seals could be caused by natural factors. Experts opened the carcasses and took samples, conducted “a detailed bacterial analysis, virological studies, including examination of tissues for the presence of the COVID-19 virus,” and sent materials for research to Moscow and Astrakhan. After research, the version “about poisoning with heavy metals or pesticides” was excluded.
“The HRC Environmental Rights Commission will take control of the situation and monitor the progress of the investigation into the causes of mass death of Caspian seals. HRC, rather than vague comments about “natural natural factors”, we hope to get a clearer result.
The exact cause of death will be determined after laboratory tests.
Source: Gazeta
Barbara Dickson is a seasoned writer for “Social Bites”. She keeps readers informed on the latest news and trends, providing in-depth coverage and analysis on a variety of topics.