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Artwork "As above, so below"
Lena Pozdnyakova
Collage (2025)
Fishing nets are estimated to cause between 5% and 19% of all seal deaths annually, being one of the most significant threats to the survival of Caspian seals.
The work reflects on the permeable boundaries between the environment and ourselves. Referencing pollution, waste, and fishing nets that fill water bodies across the world, it highlights how what we discard externally eventually affects our internal worlds—ecologically, socially, and spiritually.
The Caspian seal (Phoca caspica) is the smallest earless seal in existence, and it is the only mammal to occur naturally in the Caspian sea.
The Caspian seal belongs to the Phocidae family, which consists of most seal species and their closest relative is the Gray Seal.
Caspian seals are the only marine mammal to exist in the Caspian sea as they make up the only seal population in the entire region.
The Caspian seal is listed in the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species, and it is also on the protected lists of several countries in the region: Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan
Scientists report that the overall population of Caspian seals has dropped by up to 90% over the past few decades. In the early 1980s, there were around 450,000 seals, said Magomed-Rasul Magomedov, chief researcher at the Caspian Institute of Biological Resources at the Dagestan Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The sharp decline began in 2005, and by 2012, an aerial survey of the northern Caspian counted only 260,000 seals.
The decline only continued from there. “By 2019, the total seal population was estimated at 43,000 to 66,000,” Magomedov noted.
The seals’ very way of life complicates the picture. Caspian seals breed only on the ice of the Northern Caspian, then migrate seasonally to the south and back again. These are the periods when mortality spikes occur.
NASA Earth Observatory. (2013, March 7). Ice on the Caspian Sea. NASA. https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/80745/ice-on-the-caspian-sea
Northern Part of the Caspian Sea Only
Projected remaining breeding ground if water recedes in the Northern part of the Caspian Sea (more detailed images below)..
Maps showing: Sea area reduction from the Caspian seal breeding Important Marine Mammal Area (IMMA. Breeding grounds marked inn yellow.)
Timeline of Mass Seal Die-Offs in the Caspian Sea in recent decade
April 2025
November 2024
November 2024: Unprecedented Mortality in Kazakhstan
Around 1,000 dead seals found on Kazakhstan’s shores.
Notable detail: Most were young, healthy, and included pregnant females. Implication: Sudden, unnatural deaths not related to age, disease, or food scarcity.
December 2022: Deadliest Incident to Date
Over 2,500 seals were discovered dead along the beaches of Dagestan.
Preliminary cause: An influenza virus, which also coincided with a mass bird die-off at Maly Zhemchuzhny, suggesting cross-species infection potential.
December 2022
May 2021
2020
2016
May 2021: Targeted Killings Suspected
170 seal carcasses were found along the shoreline.
Cause (official): Seals were caught in illegal fishing nets and dumped at sea.
2020: Second Large-Scale Incident
Another wave of seal deaths occurred.
Cause (official): Hypoxia due to natural gas emissions in the sea.
2016: First Major Recorded Die-Off
Approximately 300 seal carcasses were found washed ashore.
Cause (official): Severe storms, believed to have "accelerated the natural death" of mostly older animals.
Alekseeva, M. (2025, May 19). Marine life cemetery: The Caspian Sea ecosystem is collapsing under pressure from global warming and pollution. The Insider. https://theins.ru/en/society/281416
The population of the Caspian seal has dramatically dropped from around one million at the end of the 19th century to roughly 50,000 by the early 2000s. This sharp decline was mainly due to government-approved hunting but also because of many other factors that have made it harder for the seals to survive.
Many of these causes are still not fully understood, but almost all involve human activity. These include environmental disturbances, climate change, diseases, overfishing, getting caught in marine litter and fishing nets, habitat destruction, pollution, and changes in their natural food supply—sometimes caused by invasive species.
The first major mass death of Caspian seals was recorded in 1931 on the Tyuleniy (Seal) Islands in Dagestan, Russia). Since then, other significant seal die-offs happened in 1955-56, 1997, 2000, 2007, 2020, and 2022.
Graph plotting annual numbers of Caspian seals harvested between 1867 and 2020 (none were culled after 2000). Compiled from: FAO Fishsta+; Caspian Environment Programme, Transboundary Analysis Revisit (2007); and Härkönen et al. (2012). The latter assessed significantly less seals born in most of these years than were harvested. Article source: https://doi.org/10.1134/S199542551603015X.
Sources and references for quotes, schemes and other information used in creation of thsi awareness-raising artistic project
Smith, J. A., & Doe, R. L. (2025). Environmental impacts of oil extraction in the Caspian Sea region. Journal of Marine Ecology, 42(3), 123–135. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11273096/
Alekseeva, M. (2025, May 19). Marine life cemetery: The Caspian Sea ecosystem is collapsing under pressure from global warming and pollution. The Insider. https://theins.ru/en/society/281416
Caspian Environment Programme. (n.d.). Rare species in danger of extinction. https://archive.iwlearn.net/caspian.iwlearn.org/caspian.iwlearn.org/caspian.iwlearn.org/caspian-1/biodiversity-1/rare-species-in-danger-of-extinction.html
Caspian Seal Research and Rehabilitation Center. (n.d.). Reasons for population decline. Retrieved May 26, 2025, from https://caspiansealrrc.com/reasons-for-population-decline/