Joint Caspian expedition
Scientists from Makhachkala, Moscow and Novosibirsk will try to find out the cause for mass mortality of seals on the Dagestan coast of the Caspian Sea. To this purpose, in April this year, the Dagestan State University will organize an expedition in which the Moscow Zoo, the Marine Mammals Scientific-Expedition Center, and the Scientific and Research Institute of Experimental and Clinical Medicine will take part. It is planned to collect biological material left from dead seals and birds, study possible reservoirs and foci of viral diseases, including the influenza A.
On the 28th of March, 2017, at the meeting of the participants of the forthcoming expedition, a new important project on environmental monitoring of water, air and soil along the entire Russian coast of the Caspian Sea and on the islands in the adjacent water area was presented. The scientists of Dagectan State University had been started its implementing.
Source: DSU, Makhachkala, Russia
Photo: Shumeyko Natalya (the Agrakhan Peninsula, the Caspian)