On the death of Caspian seals at the end of 2025
From October to December 2025, 183 dead Caspian seals were registered in Kazakhstan, 566 in Russia, and 36 in Iran. In Azerbaijan, 10 seals were found on the northeastern coast, a few kilometers from the Russian border. There is no official data on the number of stranded animals in Turkmenistan. Caspian seals were found near coastal settlements from the border with Kazakhstan to the Cheleken Peninsula. Biosampling tests conducted in Russia did not reveal any infectious diseases, including viruses, as the cause of death for this critically endangered species.
Kazakhstan
Every autumn, the Institute of Hydrobiology and Ecology (IHE) organised an expedition to the Caspian Sea to research seals, the only marine mammals being on the edge of extinction. On sandy islets located in shallow waters in the northeastern Caspian Sea, they count numbers of hauled out animals, research their behavior, and specialty of feeding. Part of the expedition travels to the Tyub-Karagan Peninsula, where storms have been washing up masses of dead seals in recent years. They also went to the Caspian Sea in the autumn of 2025. ‘From October 21st to November 2nd, weather was relatively calm. Despite two storms with northwesterly winds, we found only four dead seals,’ says Assel Baimukanova, a researcher at the IHE. ‘The mass strandings began after the storm on the 3rd of November. We found 13 seals that day.’
In total, specialists from IHE, Wildlife Protection Service of Fisheries Department, and Qazaq Balyk Republican Association of Fisheries and Aquaculture registered 112 seals on the Tyub-Karagan Peninsula coast. All animals were located within a short distance: 39 ind. on the coast from the village of Asan to Fort Shevchenko, and 73 ind. – from Fort Shevchenko to the Bautinskaya Spit. Of these animals, 51 were managed to examine. ‘The hardest part of monitoring is finding dead pregnant females,’ Asel recalls. ‘There were eight such animals among those examined. We will share the monitoring results once our work is complete. A detailed analysis will be ready next year.’
According to Mirgaliy Baimukanov, director of IHE and head of the expedition, the stranded animals died within about a month. ‘Previous studies have identified chronic pathologies in many organs in seals due to their poor habitat. Between 3 and 9 % of Caspian seals die from external mechanical impacts—blows to the head, entanglement in fishing nets, and other causes. The animals’ habitat must be improved. This requires adopting the Action Plan for the Caspian Seal Conservation and uniting the efforts of all countries in the Caspian region. We have developed this document and are currently awaiting its approval by the government of Kazakhstan,’ M. Baimukanov said.
Qazaq Balyk Republican Association of Fisheries and Aquaculture has registered a mass stranding of 71 seals on the Tyulen’i Islands archipelago. ‘The stranded marine mammals were found along a four-kilometer stretch of the northwestern Kulaly Island coast,’ Daniyar Akimzhanov, director of the association, told Kaspika Caspian Seals Conservation Rescue Agency.
Turkmenistan
Since November 18, 2025, local residents had begun to find dead adult and young seals on the Cheleken Peninsula coast near the village of Khazar, in the Turkmenbashi Bay near Gyzylsuv settlement, as well as near Karabogas and other settlements located closer to Kazakhstani border. There was no information about the number of stranded seals.
Iran
According to Caspian Seal Rehabilitation and Research Centre, conducted monitoring along the entire Iranian coastline, 31 dead seals were found in October: 23 ind. in Gilan Province, which borders Azerbaijan, and 8 ind. in Mazandaran Province. In November and December, only five dead seals were registered along the entire coastline, in Gilan. No dead seals were found on the eastern coast or along the Iranian-Turkmenistan border.
Azerbaijan
In October, 10 seals were found on the northeastern shore of the Caspian Sea, 12-15 km from the Russian border, near the village of Niyazova in the Khachmaz region – 1News.az reported.
Russia
According to Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Dagestan, 566 dead Caspian seals had been found by December 19, 2025. The coastline from the mouth of the Terek River to the Sulak River, near Makhachkala, and in the Karabudakhkent, Kayakent, and Derbent districts were surveyed. ‘Federal Animal Health Center has not detected DNA of Orthopoxvirus, Mycoplasma microorganisms, or a number of adenovirus pathogens in the biological samples collected from dead seals. A total of 21 diseases were tested, and the results were negative,’ noted Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance.
Author: N.R. Shumeiko, Kaspika Caspian Seals Conservation Agency.
In the top photo: Coastal monitoring on the Tyub-Karagan Peninsula, the Caspian Sea. Credited by IHE.