One of 200 seals that died in a similar incident in 2000 (ITAR-TASS)
PRAGUE, May 4, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- A top Kazakh environmental official, Yklas Nogaev, today said he is certain an oil spill caused the deaths of more that 1,000 sturgeon and more than 90 seals in Kazakhstan's sector of the Caspian Sea.
Most of the corpses were washed ashore on May 3 near an oil field off the coast of the western region of Mangistau.
Incidents of this kind happen on an almost yearly basis in the Caspian Sea.