Perilous
Times
Kazakhstan sounds alarm as hundreds of dead seals found on
Caspian sea beaches
by Staff Writers
Astana (AFP) March 27, 2012
The Caspian seal is an endangered species, whose population has
declined by more than 90 percent since the 1930s, according to the
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The Kazakhstan government and environmentalists Tuesday sounded
the alarm over the declining numbers of endangered Caspian seals
after hundreds of animals were found dead over the weekend.
"During the inspection on March 25... hundreds of dead seals were
found on the sea shore" near Bautino, a port town in the
southwest, the agriculture ministry said in a statement.
"The Caspian seal population has been falling lately," the
statement said. "The reasons for the population drop are
anthropogenic factors and changes in the environmental conditions
of the seals' habitat in the Caspian Sea."
The dead mammals were all young, and officials are now looking to
determine the cause of death, the agriculture ministry said.
The Caspian Sea, a body of water surrounded by Iran, Azerbaijan,
Russia, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan, is the only place in the
world where the Caspian seals are found.
The Caspian seal is an endangered species, whose population has
declined by more than 90 percent since the 1930s, according to the
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Because the Caspian Sea is a closed ecosystem which the seals
cannot leave, the population -- which declined from one million to
about 110,000 now -- is especially vulnerable to habitat
destruction.
In winter, the animals migrate north to the ice sheets to give
birth to their young, and are threatened by poaching, killing by
fishermen, and onshore and off-shore development, the IUCN says.
"There has been a sharp downward trend in the population size,"
Alexei Knizhnikov of WWF Russian office told AFP. "This happens
every spring season, when the weakest animals die. Dozens and even
hundreds have died annually over the past decade."
The species is threatened by various human activities, including
drilling in the North Caspian Sea, specifically in the Kashagan
oil field, he said.
"The development includes building artificial islands right in the
area where the species give birth," he said.