1700 dead seals found on Russia's Caspian shore

About 1,700 seals have been found dead on the Caspian Sea coast in southern Russia, officials said Sunday.

The authorities in the Russian province of Dagestan said that it’s still unclear what caused the animals’ deaths, but they likely died of natural reasons.

Experts of the Federal Fisheries Agency and prosecutors inspected the coastline and collected data for laboratory research, which didn’t immediately spot any pollutants. Several previous incidents of mass deaths of seals were attributed to natural causes.