Mystery mass death of seals on remote, uninhabited Siberian island under investigation

Adult seals and seal pups lying on a shore on an island. — Seals on Russia’s Tyuleniy Island, which sits within the Sea of Okhotsk close to Sakhalin Island. (Picture credit score: Auscape/Getty Photos)

Greater than 300 northern fur seals and Steller sea lions have been discovered lifeless in a thriller mass die-off on a small, uninhabited island in Siberia.

Tyuleniy Island, often known as the ‘Island of the Seals,’ is positioned within the Sea of Okhotsk and is a vital breeding floor for northern fur seals (Callorhinus ursinus).

Photographs taken by conservationists from the Pals of the Ocean wildlife reduction group and the environmental schooling group Membership Boomerang present carcasses strewn throughout the coast. A lot of the lifeless animals have been seals. Lifeless birds have been additionally discovered.

In a translated Telegram put up, a neighborhood subsidiary of the state-run broadcaster GTRK mentioned that the reason for the die-off was unclear, with poisons, toxins and viral infections all potentialities.

Associated: Thriller orcas with bulbous heads wash up lifeless in unexplained mass stranding

Maria Chistaeva, the chief veterinarian of the Primorsky Aquarium who was on the island on the time, advised GTRK that avian flu “can’t be dominated out” as a potential offender.

“For me, it’s essential to urgently discover out the reason for mass demise, take exams and examine; exams for each toxins and viral an infection,” she mentioned.

A subsequent Telegram put up from GTRK Sakhalin mentioned specialists from the Federal Supervisory Pure Sources Administration Service had gone on an emergency go to to the island. The group collected organic samples that have been despatched for evaluation. Outcomes are anticipated to take a month, it mentioned.

A sick sea lion lying on a beach with the sea in the background.

In Peru, 1000’s of sea lions have died because the begin of the yr, with chicken flu suspected in numerous the deaths. (Picture credit score: Martin Bernetti/Getty Photos)

Authorities have established quarantine zones for avian flu in a number of coastal areas on the close by Sakhalin Island, which sits 10 miles (17 kilometers) from Tyuleniy Island.

Extremely pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), extensively often known as chicken flu, has wreaked havoc on sea chicken populations internationally since a very virulent pressure, often known as H5N1, was detected in a gull in 2021.

Since earlier this yr, scientists have been investigating whether or not the pressure has made its means into marine mammal populations. Scientists suspect bird-to-seal transmissions of avian flu might have occurred in areas reminiscent of Maine and coastal Peru, the place H5N1 has devastated wild chicken populations. From January by means of February this yr, greater than 3,000 sea lion deaths have been recorded in Peru, lots of which examined optimistic for H5N1.

The expedition group to Tyuleniy, which included scientists, veterinarians and volunteers, had traveled to the island to wash up plastic air pollution and rescue seals that have been trapped by plastic nets or different particles.

Earlier than the mass demise was found, the group mentioned it had saved 151 northern fur seals. Northern fur seals are listed as “weak” by the Worldwide Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), as a consequence of their falling pup manufacturing charges.

Prior to now, northern fur seals have been hunted as a part of a worldwide industrial fur commerce and are at the moment threatened by competitors with fisheries, in addition to local weather change results.

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