MAKHACHKALA, December 11. /TASS/. Specialists of the territorial department of the Russian Federal Agency for Fishery in Dagestan have found the bodies of 272 Caspian seals washed up ashore of the Caspian Sea on December 6-10, the department’s press service informed TASS on Friday. The cause of death is currently being determined.

"From December 6 to December 10, 272 dead seals have been detected. The experts searched the shore from Makhachkala to Sulak (in the northern direction - TASS) and from Makhachkala to Samur (in the southern direction - TASS), we counted them one by one. We do not rule out that there may be more, as those are only the seals that washed up ashore on the researched territory," a representative of the department informed, adding that the majority of dead seals have been found in the area between Makhachkala and the mouth of River Sulak.

The press service added that the investigation continues, with the cause of mass death of marine animals currently being determined by experts of the Volga-Caspian Branch of the Russian Federal Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography, as well as experts of the Russian Academy of Sciences that arrived to Dagestan from Moscow.

Earlier, on December 6, the Volga-Caspian Branch of the Russian Federal Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography informed that bodies of dead seals had been found on the shore of the Caspian Sea in Dagestan. The press service of the Russian Federal Agency for Fishery suggested that their deaths could have been caused by a viral or bacterial infection exacerbated by unfavorable weather conditions in the area.

The Caspian seal is the only mammal living in the Caspian Sea. This species was declared endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2008. In 2015, Dagestan approved a program aimed to preserve the Caspian seal. In 2020, this mammal was included in the Red Data Book of the Russian Federation.