Why a Threatened Species?
Researchers studying the Caspian Seal from the University of Leeds together with other researchers have documented a troublesome drop off in the seals population of 90 percent over the past century. A 2005-2006 study of the seals, which appeared in the journal Ambio revealed a very troubling census of the seals showing that there were only around 17,000 females found to be in the breeding population. This was extremely troublesome because the pups of these small seals have a very high mortality rate with few surviving each year. Concern over the future of the seals became even more stressed when the recent 2007-2008 study showed a massive 60 percent drop in the birth rate of Caspian Seal pups with a loss of over a third of the breeding population since the 2005 numbers. The seals rapid decline is due to human activities including the commercial fishing industry whose nets drown the seals, hunting, pollution and encroachment into the seal’s habitat and disease. Before these activities s
