Iranian fishermen hated seals at first
Caspian News International Informative Portal continues to take care of seals – the only marine mammals that live in the waters of the Caspian Sea. Our interlocutor – Amir Sayad Shirazi, the General Director of Caspian Seal Rehabilitation and Research Centre established in Iran on Ashuradeh Island a few years ago – the first seal «clinic» in the Caspian Region.
Caspian News: Amir, you are heading the Centre for the rescue and rehabilitation of Caspian seals. As far as I know, such a center is a kind of hospital for seals and is the only one in the large Caspian region, is not it?
Amir Sayad Shirazi: Actually, it is not a hospital for seals, but rather a pilot project, a centre that brings together a variety of resources to help seals. To date, it is the only center in the whole Caspian Region, and one of its main objectives – the integration of the entire region, because seals migrate across the waters. It is essential that efforts of the various parties should be united in order to create a system for seals protection and rehabilitation, a network of centers that would work together in the name of saving Caspian seals.
Authors: Galina Godunova, Nikolay Telyufanov, Dmitriy Kazinskiy, Vladimir Safonov.
Photos: Amir Sayad Shirazi.