News about Caspian Seal Nature Reserve

During his visit to the Mangistau region in 2022, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev instructed to create a nature reserve to preserve the Caspian seal and its key habitats in the northeastern part of the Caspian Sea. In this regard, in 2022-2023, Kazakhstan Agency for Applied Ecology, with the financial support of NCOC N.V. and Fisheries Committee of Kazakhstan, developed a natural scientific and technical and economic justifications for this protected area (PA).

In June 2024, the public discussion of the draft Decree of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On Establishment of State Nature Reserve for Conservation of Caspian Seal Population” was completed. The total area of the reserve, including marine waters and territory, will be 109,558.04 hectares, the area of the protected zone – 69,839.62 hectares. The reserve will be located in Mangistau and Atyrau regions.’

Currently, Fisheries Committee is developing a normative list for the nature reserve’s material and technical equipment: the required number of vehicles, equipment for research and rehabilitation units, and other infrastructure facilities.

The new PA will ensure the protection of the red-listed Caspian seal, and other rare and vulnerable species of the northeastern Caspian fauna and flora.

In the photograph credited by Оleg Belyalov in 2016: a moulted Caspian seal pup, Uralskaya Borozdina, the northern Caspian Sea, 1984.