Almost 2,000 endangered seals have been found mysteriously dead on the shoreline Russian Caspian Sea.
Officials from the Russian province of Dagestan initially said they had been discovered 300 dead Caspian seals.
But this Sunday, Zaur Gapizov, general director of the Caspian Environmental Protection Center, said that the number had risen to at least 1,2008, according to the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
Gapizov said that the seals probably died a couple of weeks ago and there was no evidence that they were killed by poachers.
“No signs of violent death were found, no remains of fishing nets were found either,” said Gapizov.
“Most likely, the number of seals dead is much higher. The coastal patrol of the Caspian Environmental Center, as well as inspectors from the Federal Fisheries Agency and employees of other environmental departments continue to explore the coast.”
Russian authorities said the seals probably died from natural causes, although the reason is unknown.
Specialists from the Federal Fisheries Agency of Russia and prosecutors inspected the coast and collected data for the investigation.
Data on the number of seals in the Caspian Sea vary. The fishing agency places the number between 300,70 Y 300,270, while the environmental center estimates that it does not exceed 300,000.
Dead seals are found washed up on the Caspian Sea shores of Dagestan every few years.