More than 400 dead seals were found on the coast of Dagestan.

484 dead seals have been found on the Caspian Sea coast in Makhachkala and three districts of Dagestan, the republic's Ministry of Natural Resources reported. Experts say the animals show signs of suffocation.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," on December 2, the Dagestan Ministry of Natural Resources reported verifying reports of new seal deaths on the Caspian Sea coast. Telegram users suggested that the animals are dying due to the unfavorable environmental situation.

Hundreds of dead Caspian seals were discovered by specialists on the coast of the Caspian Sea while investigating reports of mass deaths, the press service of the Dagestan Ministry of Natural Resources reported.

"We continue to monitor the situation with seal deaths on the coast of the Caspian Sea. Our specialists conducted a survey of the coast of Makhachkala, Karabudakhkent, Kayakent, and Derbent districts. 484 carcasses of dead seals were found washed ashore," the ministry's official Telegram channel reported.

The Ministry of Natural Resources has sent urgent requests to all responsible agencies to take the "necessary response measures." The ministry noted that it will continue surveying coastal zones.

Mass seal deaths have become commonplace in Dagestan

“We drove a kilometer and counted 28 of them,” the senior state inspector of the central department of fisheries protection of the North Caucasus region is quoted as saying. Temirlan Salimsultanov, Head of the Federal Agency for Fisheries, Izvestia.

According to the publication, specialists found signs of asphyxia in the dead animals. The republic's Ministry of Natural Resources had previously stated that the seals could have suffocated while passing through zones of powerful natural gas emissions from the seismically active seafloor.

The Caspian seal is the only mammal native to the Caspian Sea. In April 2019, the Dagestan government ordered this animal added to the republic's Red Data Book, categorizing the seals as "decreasing in numbers and/or distribution." In March 2020, the country's Ministry of Natural Resources updated Russia's Red Data Book for the first time in 23 years and added the Caspian seal to the list. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has declared the Caspian seal an endangered species.