TEHRAN – The first specialized center in the country for the conservation, treatment, and dissection of Caspian seals opened in Bojaq National Park in the Caspian Sea province of Gilan on Thursday.

The center aims to revive and care for the seals, the only marine mammal in the Caspian Sea; the inauguration of the center will serve as a milestone in the implementation of national and regional programs for the protection of this endangered animal, IRIB quoted Ahmad-Reza Lahijanzadeh, the deputy head of the Department of Environment for Marine and Wetlands affairs, as saying.

The center has the capacity to become a specialized veterinary and research complex to study the causes of death in seals, he added.

Training fishermen to report incidents and transport injured seals quickly (to the center), and using drones to monitor seals will play a key role in lowering losses, Lahijanzadeh added.

The official went on to say that the coastal community can also contribute to the preservation program through reporting seal sightings or carcasses.

Conservation action plan to save Caspian seal

In recent years, the increasing discovery of seal carcasses on the southern coast of the Caspian Sea has raised concerns among environmentalists that the Caspian seal is at a greater risk of extinction than ever before.

The species is now listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, with its population declining due to various reasons, from one million in the past to 70,000, currently.

In November 2024, DOE started implementing a national action plan that focuses on the conservation of the Caspian seal.

The main objective of the plan is to conserve the Caspian seal, a rare, valuable, endemic, and endangered species of the Caspian Sea, as the priority of marine environmental activities, IRNA quoted Mohammad Talebi-Matin, an official with the DOE, as saying.

The establishment of a center for the Caspian seal conservation in Tarbiat Modarres University's branch in Noor County is among the important measures taken in this regard.

It has fostered positive interactions between the university and the executive units, which is expected to bring about positive results in the protection of Caspian seals in the near future, the official noted.

Executive working groups have been formed in cooperation with governors and other beneficiaries under the management of provincial departments of environment in Gilan, Mazandaran, and Golestan provinces.

Also, the rescue centers for seals in these three provinces are well-equipped, and a specialized training workshop has already been held for the beneficiaries and rangers, Talebi-Matin said.

The training included basic methods of rescue, release, carcass disposal, and correct sample gathering.

In addition, examining the seals’ carcasses on the beaches to identify the cause of their loss is being pursued in cooperation with neighboring countries and related organizations.

The Caspian seal is in dire need of protection.  Iran's efforts alone cannot ensure the preservation of the Caspian seals; it necessitates the collaboration of neighboring countries, including Russia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan.

The Seventh Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea, known as COP 7, which will be held in Tehran, will focus on the preservation of the Caspian seal.

Addressing the coordination meeting for the protection of the Caspian seal species, Shina Ansari, the head of the DOE, said that given the recent losses of the seals and their critical status, conservation efforts need to be prioritized.

MT/MG