On October 26, 2021 at 12.30 a press conference will be held at the B.M. Kustodiev Astrakhan International Airport, dedicated to the launch of the ecological project for the study and conservation of the Caspian seal "Soul of the Caspian Sea". The project was developed by the Clean Seas Foundation in cooperation with leading experts on marine mammals from the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of Russian Academy of Sciences with the support of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation.
The first expedition begins this autumn. On the La-8 amphibious aircraft, the scientific and film crew will fly along the Russian coast of the Caspian Sea along preset routes. At the helm is the main pilot of all air expeditions of the Clean Seas Foundation - Hero of Russia Valery Tokarev, cosmonaut, 1st class test pilot.
At the second stage, the expedition team, together with the inspectors of the Astrakhan State Nature Reserve, will go out to sea in speedboats to the island of Maliy Zhemchuzhny to install satellite transmitters on animals and take bio-samples.
All these are just the first steps of the Soul of the Caspian project. There is still a lot of work ahead to study the current state of the Caspian seal population and develop a strategy for its conservation.
The Caspian seal (Pusa Caspica) is one of the smallest seals on the planet. It is not only the only mammalian inhabitant of the salt lake called the Caspian Sea, but also an indicator of its ecosystem.
19
November
2021