MOSCOW – About 2,500 seals were found dead on the Caspian Sea coast in southern Russia, officials said on Sunday.
Authorities in Russia’s Dagestan province said it was unclear why the mass deaths happened but that it was likely due to natural causes.
Regional officials initially reported on Saturday that 700 dead seals were found on the coast, but the Dagestan branch of Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment later increased the number to about 2,500.
Zaur Gapizov, head of the Caspian Environmental Protection Center, said in a statement that the seals probably died a few weeks ago. He added that there was no evidence they were killed or caught in fishing nets.
Experts from the Federal Fisheries Agency and prosecutors inspected the coast and collected data for laboratory tests that did not immediately detect any pollutants.
Several previous mass seal deaths have been attributed to natural causes. Kazakhstan, which has a long Caspian coastline, reported at least three such incidents this year.
Data on the number of seals in the Caspian Sea are very diverse. The Fisheries Agency said the total number of Caspian seals is 270,000 to 300,000, while the Caspian Environmental Protection Center put the number at 70,000.