Kazakhstan: Hundreds of Dead Seals Wash-Up on Caspian Coast

Hundreds of dead seals have washed ashore on Kazakhstan's Caspian coast in recent days. Environmentalists say pollution is weakening the seals' immune systems, making them more vulnerable to disease.

"Border guards found 218 dead seals while patrolling the coast on May 12. [T]he carcasses were in a state of decay," the official Russian news agency RIA Novosti quoted a Kazakhstani fisheries official, Marat Akhmetov, as saying on May 14.

The Caspian Seal has been classified as an endangered species since 2008. Its population has plummeted from more than 1 million at the turn of the 20th century to less than 100,000 today. Scientists believe the seal population is acting as a barometer of the overall health of the Caspian Sea.