Over a thousand dead seals have washed up dead along the coast just several miles from where the UN's Cop29 climate summit is taking place. Seals were once a common sight along the waterfront in Baku Bay. But they have since disappeared.
Of the million that once inhabited the Caspian Sea a century ago, fewer than 10 per cent remain, leaving the species teetering on the brink of extinction. This ecological disaster is taking place just a few miles from where world leaders gathered for Cop29, the UN’s Climate Summit , currently taking place in the Azerbaijani capital. In the past few weeks 1,034 dead seals were found washed up on the shores of the Caspian.
Climate scientist says 2/3rds of the world is under an effective 'death sentence' because of global warming Map shows parts of New York will soon be underwater as sea levels to rise by six feet The cause of death is unknown as tests are still underway. But Asel Baimukanova, a specialist at the Institute of Hydrobiology and Ecology, said more than half of the females were pregnant, adding: “The deaths were apparently unnatural and sudden.” Another mass die-off occurred in 2000 when a strain of canine distemper virus was believed to have been responsible for the death of tens of thousands of seals.
The species, now on an endangered red list, has been struggling since over-hunting for their fur and blubber in the previous century caused the population to plummet by 70%. Recent threats include getting caught in illegal fish.