The only mammal of the Caspian Sea: how to preserve the Red Book seal?
Russia and Kazakhstan signed a joint action plan to conserve the Caspian seal population. What needs to be done to save a unique animal, MIR 24 TV channel Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Scientific Director of environmental and nature conservation projects and international programs of the Institute of Ecology and Evolution. Severtsov Russian Academy of Sciences Vyacheslav Rozhnov.
– The Caspian seal is included in the Red Data Books of Kazakhstan and Russia. Why is the animal called unique?
Vyacheslav Rozhnov: The Caspian seal, or the Caspian seal, is the only mammal that lives in the Caspian Sea. Seals live in the northern seas, and in others, and a completely independent species lives in the Caspian, it lives only there. It is interesting because it ended up in the Caspian Sea – it is a closed body of water that is not connected with other seas. Where he came from there, how he lives there – this all determines the features that are of great interest to scientists.
– Recently, according to scientists, the number of the Caspian seal has decreased by one third. How serious is this for the population?
Vyacheslav Rozhnov: If we talk about a specific number, judge for yourself: about a hundred years ago there were about a million individuals of this seal in the Caspian Sea. Now about 250-270 thousand. There is a sharp decline in the number.
– These data differ for different Caspian countries. Why?
Vyacheslav Rozhnov: For various reasons. Firstly, now the Caspian Sea is divided into five parts – according to the countries that surround it. The Caspian seal lives mainly in the northern part of the sea – this is the Kazakh water area, the Russian water area. Why does he live there? Because there is ice, because it is tied to the ice – it pups on the ice, brings offspring on them, rests on them, molts. A variety of methods are used to conduct a seal census. Now the most actively used aeronautical methods, but they are also different, so different countries get different numbers.
We are now moving towards conducting a survey, together with our Kazakh colleagues and our scientists, over the water area of the northern Caspian, over the water areas of our countries, using a single method, in order to more accurately know the number of this seal.
Some seals are swimming, others are diving, and methods of counting seals on ice are now being worked out. With the help of thermal imagers, video cameras that are installed on special aircraft.
– What caused the massive decline in the seal population?
Vyacheslav Rozhnov: Man has tried everywhere where he is present, including the Caspian Sea. There is a complex of both anthropogenic and natural causes. As for natural causes, for example, there is a process of global warming, including the Caspian Sea. How does this threaten the seal? The fact that the ice, which is located in the northern part of the Caspian Sea – in the water area of the Kazakh, Russian – its area is reduced, and this reduces the area where animals can bear offspring.
Other reasons are natural processes that take place in the Caspian Sea. For a long time they were ignored. Now, especially after everyone has seen, the explosion in the Caspian Sea of gases that have gathered in a single space. It was a huge explosion, but such gas emissions occur constantly, and gas lenses collect above the surface of the water and if a seal swims through such lenses, it can be poisoned by this gas – this can also cause the death of seals.
The only mammal in the Caspian Sea: how to preserve the Red Book seal?
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FOLLOWING
For a long time, it was believed that fishing was associated with a decrease in the number of this seal. This is so, because for some time there was an overexploitation of fish stocks, and here the competitor to the seal is a person who uses the same food base, including the pollution of the Caspian Sea. Everyone knows that there is oil that is released arbitrarily in the Caspian Sea, rises, dissolves in water and can poison the seal itself, its food base, including the way people use oil to extract it. It is clear that ships are also actively sailing in the Caspian Sea – there is pollution from them.
These factors also influenced the life of the Caspian seal.
– Experts have noticed that infectious diseases are spreading in the population of the Caspian seal. What are the seals sick with?
Vyacheslav Rozhnov: This is a very interesting and important question, we are now approaching it, like other types of research in the wild, from the point of view of infectious diseases. Some time ago there was a mass death of the Caspian seal – they took samples from them and found out that they had a plague of carnivores. This disease is common in dogs, in particular. Where it comes from in a seal is not completely clear to us, but many predators suffer from this disease, the routes of entry, especially for the Caspian seal, are not fully understood.
That is why we have formed a comprehensive program for the study of the Caspian seal, including infectious diseases, the genetic diversity of this species, including those factors that affect it, the food supply – how it determines the existence of the Caspian seal and a whole range of other issues: the ways of their migration , time of birth of cubs and place of birth, that is, a large complex program – it is being carried out for the second year.
– What measures are being taken to restore the population and preserve this seal? The President of Kazakhstan proposed to create state reserves in the northern Caspian. What is it?
Vyacheslav Rozhnov: Specially protected natural areas, water areas that are necessary in order to allow seals to calmly breed, calmly molt, and so on. It's a good offer. To take any action, we need to know the reasons: why all this happened in order to block these reasons. To do this, you need to study it.
We cooperate with the Kazakhstan Agency for Applied Ecology, and together with our colleagues we study the seal. On the Russian side, our institute is the leading one in this program, but VNIRO, its branch in the Caspian Sea, is also participating in this program. Together we study these things. We are also helped by the “Clean Seas” Foundation, with which we plan to carry out surveys of the Caspian seal this fall on airplanes with special equipment. This is a search for the reasons that need to be blocked for the Caspian seal to live well in the Caspian, in order to try to restore its numbers.
