The water level in the Caspian Sea is rapidly decreasing; since 1996, the water level in the Caspian Sea has dropped by almost three meters. Fishing is rapidly declining, ships cannot enter the port due to shallowing. Some scientists call the situation with the Caspian shallowing catastrophic. The water level has dropped so much that shipping in the port of Makhachkala is increasingly stopped after a storm. And these days the ships are in the roadstead near Makhachkala because they cannot enter the port – the canals are covered with sand.
In the North of the Caspian, where there has always been shallow water, the water has receded for kilometers. Here the spawning grounds are left without water, and there are fewer and fewer fish. Previously, 90 million sturgeon lived in the Caspian Sea, now, according to experts, it is seven times less.
Idris Idrisov, a scientist at the Institute of Geology of the Far Eastern Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, gives exact figures: since 1996, the water level in the Caspian Sea has dropped by almost three meters. Researchers believe that the main reason is global warming and a decrease in water levels in rivers that flow into the sea. Already in 2022, the average annual level of the Caspian Sea decreased by 27 centimeters compared to 2021.
The rate of sea level decline last year increased compared to 2021, when sea levels dropped by 20 centimeters. Thus, in just 2 years, the level of the Caspian Sea dropped by almost half a meter. Such data are presented in the information bulletin on the state of the level of the Caspian Sea, published on May 17, which is published twice a year by the Coordination Committee for Hydrometeorology of the Caspian Sea (CASPCOM).
In 2022, the average annual sea level was -28.70 meters, a year earlier it was -28.43 BS. The main reason for this was the reduced flow of the Volga River in 2022 (212 cubic km at the top of the delta), which was significantly lower than normal (238 cubic km) and comparable to the flow volume in 2021 (208 cubic km) – noted in the ballots. In January 2023, the level was approximately 30 centimeters lower than in January 2022.
In the first three months of 2023, the Volga runoff was approximately equal to the volume for the same period in 2022 and 2021. (Fig. 3). The flood in 2023 began earlier than in the previous year. The peak of the flood occurred at the end of April, so the April runoff this year was almost 2.5 times higher than in the previous year. However, high costs were observed only for 5 days due to the low water inflow in the Volga basin, and from April 25 they gradually decreased. Thus, 2023 was expected to be the third consecutive low-water year. Due to the predicted low water content of the river. Volga, a further decrease in the level of the Caspian Sea was expected in 2023.
The Ministry of Ecology of Azerbaijan also reported about the shallowing of the Caspian Sea. Thus, the level of the water body has fallen by almost 70 centimeters over the past five years, and by just over 1.1 meters over the last decade. The Azerbaijani authorities declare the need for a comprehensive study of this problem, the development of possible scenarios for sea level change and appropriate adaptation measures.
The Caspian countries plan to join the expert group. Experts will study the reasons for the shallowing of the Caspian Sea and prepare adaptation measures. The main goal of the group will be to study the factors affecting the level of the Caspian Sea and develop recommendations for the sustainable management of this important water basin. Russia also notes the problem of shallowing the Caspian Sea. In addition, mass deaths of seals have been repeatedly discovered on the Caspian coast. Previously, the Government of the Russian Federation prepared a Protocol to protect the sea from pollution, aimed at preserving ecosystems and ensuring the environmental safety of the Caspian Sea.
Some scientists call the current shallowing of the Caspian Sea temporary. Observations show that for 50 years the sea level drops, and for the next 50 years it rises. However, in the Caspian states – Kazakhstan, Iran, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan – they are already talking about an environmental disaster in the Caspian Sea.
The Compass Environmental Foundation and Dagestan State University (DSU) conducted a study to study the Caspian seal population after the mass death of marine animals on the shores of the Caspian Sea, where more than 2.5 thousand dead seals were found on the coast in December 2022. According to the press service of the Compass Foundation, the research took place from April to December last year and included six expeditions. Scientists collected information about the size, age and sex structure of the Caspian seal population. Four camera traps were installed in different parts of Maly Zhemchuzhny Island.
As a result, experts discovered a catastrophically low density of animals in seasonal areas and a complete absence in island rookeries in the spring, which is unusual for this period. And on Maly Zhemchuzhny Island, during three months of research, only one individual was recorded. Previously, the Ministry of Natural Resources of Dagestan reported that the number of Caspian seals is stable and amounts to 270-300 thousand.
According to scientists, the cause of the mass death of seals was avian influenza. Moreover, the average age of dead animals was 7.7 years with a life expectancy of up to 50 years. This indicates an increase in the mortality rate of young seals, including pregnant females. Experts propose to include seals in the list of rare and endangered animals that require priority measures to restore the population. Proposals have been sent to the Russian Ministry of Nature.
Dozens of hectares of territory are littered with spontaneous landfills in Dagestan. At the same time, the republic does not use a waste sorting system. Mountain rivers are clogged with plastic and food waste, and they flow into the Caspian Sea, where seals live. In the near future, scientists intend to send reports of their research to all relevant departments of the republic. In their opinion, it is necessary to create special places for storing municipal solid waste.
In 2007, a mass death of seals was recorded in Kazakhstan. According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Kazakhstan, over two weeks, the surf washed up more than 350 dead seals on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea (Mangistau region), of which 90 percent were young. Studies have shown that the internal organs of dead animals do not contain high levels of heavy metals or pesticides, and analyzes of seawater samples did not reveal its contamination with petroleum products.
Perhaps the abnormally warm winter played a cruel joke on the only mammals of the Caspian Sea. As a rule, females raise their young on the ice. In the same season, ice cover in the northern part of the Caspian Sea formed only at the end of February. But the Caspian seals did not have to enjoy their usual living conditions for long. In less than a month the ice was completely gone. At the same time, according to Azerbaijani biologists, the main cause of death of seals is the canine distemper virus.
The Caspian seal is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the smallest of 32 species living on the planet (body length 1.2-1.4 m, weight up to 90 kg). In winter it lives among the ice. Breeds only in the northeastern part of the Caspian Sea. Mating in late February-early March, pregnancy – 10-11 months, in January-February the female gives birth to one, rarely two cubs. The fur of a newborn seal (white) is white. Back in the last century, the International Society for Conservation of Nature listed Caspian seals as a “vulnerable” species. There is currently a proposal to add seals to the list of endangered animals.
On the part of Kazakhstan, the Caspian Sea is also threatened by radiation contamination: “An environmental catastrophe on a global scale threatens Kazakhstan if the decommissioning of the nuclear reactor RU BN-350 does not begin in the near future, experts believe. Today, radioactive materials are stored on the territory of this facility waste, of which the most dangerous is cesium 137. At the same time, the containers in which everything is placed have become unusable, which can lead to contamination of the sea.
The accumulated radioactive material at the BN-350 reactor plant is enough to turn more than a billion cubic meters of water into radioactive waste. In addition, several hundred square kilometers will be contaminated, which will lead to irradiation of the population. Needless to say, in the waters of all five Caspian countries, transport corridors for the transportation of sea cargo are threatened with disappearance,” reports Kazakh journalist Langa Chereshkaite.
RU BN-350 is the world’s first pilot industrial fast neutron power reactor with sodium coolant, commissioned in 1973. The installation was operated until 1999 as part of the production complex of MAEK-Kazatomprom LLP and was intended to supply power to steam turbine generators of CHPP-2 and seawater desalination plants.
In 1999, the government of Kazakhstan issued a decree to stop the operation of the installation and decommission it. This was due to the United States allocating funds for new desalination and heating equipment, as well as the disposal of remaining fuel. In reality, the reactor was shut down because it could produce weapons-grade plutonium-239. Many feared that it might fall into unscrupulous hands.
Nuclear fuel was removed from MAEK at one time, but toxic waste remained. Currently, there are about 3 thousand cubic meters in special storage facilities. meters of liquid radioactive waste, including sodium and cesium-137. The containers in which radioactive waste is stored are made of metal; they have been in use for almost 50 years and during this time they have never been modernized.