A Happy Rescue
Every year, seals die in fishing nets throughout the Caspian Sea. Thousands of them. But one charming little seal was lucky enough to survive. On the 11th of October, while checking their fishing gear near the Minkaleh Peninsula, fishermen found a Caspian seal. Having carefully entangled it from nets and made sure there were no injuries on its body, they released the animal into the sea. When saying goodbye, the seal was named Shali. ‘Fishermen name rescued seals with their own or close relatives first and last names,’ explains Amir Sayadshirazi, Head of Iran Caspian Seal Conservation Center. ‘This, like a talisman, will protect an animal from misfortune, granting a long life and reminding – somewhere in the sea, they have a friend.’
A beautiful Iranian tradition! Is not it?
Together with Iran Caspian Seal Conservation Center, we thank these fishermen from Kaume Chalasht Miankaleh – Abdul Rashid Hazari, Yousef Bayram Shali, Safa Shir Gholizadeh, Araz Mohammad Makhtoum Nejad, Nazar Mohammad Tatar, and Araz Ali Fallahpour – for their help in preserving the unique marine mammal of the Caspian Sea!
Source: Caspian Seal Conservation Center, Gorgan.
In the top photo: the Caspian seal rescued from fishing net and released back into the sea, the Miankaleh Peninsula, Iran, October 2025. The still from a video filmed by fishermen from Kaume Chalasht Miankaleh.