131 seals are dead, she was washed up on the Caspian Sea. A spokesman for the Kazakh Ministry of the Environment told AFP news agency on Wednesday, without providing any information about the animals’ cause of death.
However, autopsies would be performed. Kazakh environmentalists said they would analyze soil and water samples from the vast salt lake area.
Animals are threatened
The animals are endangered Caspian seals. The Caspian seal is the only seal species found in the Caspian Sea. The Kazakh government put the animals on the endangered species list in November 2020.
The Caspian Sea is the largest inland body of water on Earth. It borders Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Iran. Caspian seal populations have been declining for decades due to hunting and increasing water pollution. According to expert estimates, the population has dropped from more than a million individuals at the beginning of the 20th century to about 68,000.
(SDA)