Update: Hundreds of Dead Seals Wash Up on Shore*

The Associated Press
Wednesday, May 2, 2007; 11:52 PM

ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Hundreds of dead seals have washed up on
Kazakhstan's Caspian Sea shoreline in the past several days, bringing
the total number of the animals found dead along the shoreline in recent
weeks to almost 1,000, the Emergencies Agency said Wednesday.

Environmental officials in the Central Asian nation were trying to
determine what killed seals _ most of them young _ the agency said in a
statement. Preliminary tests showed some of the animals were infected
with the distemper virus, authorities said.

Several dozen dead seals were found by oil workers on the Caspian shore
in western Kazakhstan's Mangistau region about a month ago. By
mid-April, the number had risen above 600.

A series of viral epidemics have killed thousands of Caspian seals since
the late 1990s.

Environmentalists also have been concerned about the effect on wildlife
of increasing exploration of the inland sea's extensive oil reserves.

Last year, 350 seals and thousands of sturgeon died as a result of a
heavy metal leak from an oil field.