A Sperm Whale on Baku Boulevard: A Wake-Up Call for the Caspian Sea's Troubled Ecosystem

By Tural Heybatov

On Monday morning, an unusual demonstration took place on the Baku Boulevard: a baby sperm whale was "displayed" in the middle of the promenade. This attracted attention and even shocked some people until it became clear that the whale was not real. The installation was actually an environmental awareness display tied to COP29, drawing significant public interest.

The aim of the installation was to highlight the environmental issues facing seas and oceans. Although sperm whales do not inhabit the Caspian Sea, their ancestors lived in these waters about 25 million years ago. According to information from Wikipedia, sperm whales, along with other toothed whales, diverged from ancient ancestors during the Oligocene and Miocene epochs. Fossils of whales similar to sperm whales, dating back around 25 million years, were discovered in 1970 on the territory of Azerbaijan.

While prehistoric sperm whales disappeared from the Caspian region naturally, the fauna currently inhabiting the Caspian deserves our attention. Recently, the ecological problems in the region have intensified, particularly due to the falling sea levels. The Caspian’s wildlife — in the largest inland body of water on Earth — is enduring challenging times.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Caspian Sea was home to up to a million seals. By 1989, their numbers had dropped to 400,000, and by 2005 to 110,000. This figure further decreased to 100,000 in 2008, and in 2019, the population fell to between 43,000 and 66,000. For example, in the early 1980s, the Turkmen section of the Caspian hosted up to 15,000 seals, but by 2007, a field survey by Turkmenistan's National Institute of Deserts, Flora, and Fauna found that only about 1,000 seals remained.

Recently, 121 dead seals were found on the Caspian shore in the Mangystau region of Kazakhstan. From October 24 to 29, 289 dead animals were found during shoreline monitoring. Similar incidents are also regularly recorded along the coast of the North Caucasus. In 2020, the most significant seal die-off in recent history occurred: about 6,000 dead seals washed ashore in Azerbaijan, and over 10,000 in Kazakhstan. Overall, around 30,000 seals died that year. The animals were found to have died from canine distemper virus, but pollution in the Caspian also played a role. Water samples taken off the coasts of Russia and Azerbaijan showed high levels of toxic chemicals, which may not directly kill the seals but weaken their immune systems and reduce their population. The situation became so severe that in 2020, the Caspian seal was included in the Red Book in Kazakhstan and Russia.

Seal deaths in the Azerbaijani sector are recorded less frequently. The last reported incident in the Khachmaz region was in December 2022, when 17 dead seals were found. Investigation revealed that some of the carcasses had drifted from the Russian side. During the same period, more than 2,500 dead seals were found along the Dagestan shoreline. Specialists believe the cause was natural gas emissions, which, if aligned with the autumn migration routes of Caspian seals heading to haul-out sites, result in mass die-offs. This appears to have been the case in December 2022.

However, it is not always natural phenomena that cause marine animal deaths; often, human activities are to blame. For example, on Sakhalin, conservationists managed to rescue over 150 northern fur seals that had become entangled in plastic waste.

It is worth noting that the Caspian seal is an endemic species and the only mammal in the Caspian Sea. Its diet mainly consists of fish — primarily anchovy, gobies, sand smelts, as well as mollusks and shrimp. Seasonal migrations are typical for these seals: in winter, they concentrate in the northern part of the sea, while in warmer months, they migrate to the Middle and Southern Caspian.

Returning to the sperm whale installation, it is worth emphasizing that large marine species like whales and sharks do not inhabit the Caspian. As a closed body of water, the Caspian Sea is not vast enough to support such large marine species that require the depths and expanses of oceans. While the ancestors of sperm whales once inhabited this region, it was during an era when the waters of a proto-ocean covered these lands.

Today, our concern should be directed at preserving the species that still inhabit our environment and, in their own way, beautify our world.