Around 700 endangered seals have been found dead on Russia's Caspian coast in the North Caucasus, local officials said yesterday.
Since 2008, Caspian seals, the only mammals found in the Caspian Sea, have been classified as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN red list.
There is a chance that the number of discovered animals will increase. The press service for the region s fisheries agency said the cause of death has yet to be determined, according to Russian state media outlet TASS.
The seals were washed up on the coast of Russia's republic of Dagestan, along the Caspian Sea, the largest landlocked body of water in the world.
TASS said researchers had already started working on identifying the cause of the mammals deaths. The news comes after more than 140 Caspian seals were found dead on Kazakh beaches of the Caspian Sea earlier this year, according to KASPIKA, an agency for the conservation of Caspian seals.
The Caspian seal population has suffered from over-hunting, habitat degradation and climate change, according to the IUCN.
The Caspian Sea is bordered by five countries: Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan.