Russia: 2,500 seals found dead on Caspian Sea coast; cause unclear

About 2,500 seals have been found dead on the Caspian Sea coast in southern Russia, officials said on Monday.

The authorities in the Russian province of Dagestan said that it’s still unclear what caused the animals’ deaths, but they likely died of natural reasons.

Regional officials initially said on Saturday that 700 dead seals were found on the coast, but it was later raised to 2,500.

An official said the seals likely died a couple of weeks ago.

He added that there was no sign that they were killed by poachers.

Experts of the Federal Fisheries Agency and prosecutors inspected the coastline and collected data for laboratory research, which didn’t immediately spot any pollutants.

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Several previous incidents of mass deaths of seals were attributed to natural causes.

The data about the number of seals in the Caspian varies widely.