OREANDA-NEWS  It was reported that seals died from methane poisoning, the outfall of which into the waters of the Caspian Sea provoked an earthquake. There is a possibility that the cause of the death could have been "the peculiarity of the ice situation in the northern part of the Caspian Sea".

Kamil Omarov, head of the animal ecology laboratory of the Caspian Institute of Biological Resources of the Dagestan Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told to REGNUM: “Most likely, the reason was the methane seepage, provoked by earthquakes. This coincided with the period of migration of seals from North to South. As for the case of this year, some of  seals really died due to the activities of poachers”.

In 2020, several cases of mass death of seals were noted in Dagestan. The total number of dead animals was about 1900 specimen.

In early May 2021, about 180 dead seals were also found on the coast of the Caspian Sea, some of them had no skins, and it was assumed that their death was the work of poachers who killed animals because of their skin.