Komputer for Alle 1998 #6/1998 CD 6 (Gul).iso/web/ffa/wwwenv~1.org/arrs/digest/news41~9.htm/text0026.txt

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Subject: [RU] Unique Russian Seals Dead from Pulp Mill Effluent
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[The following has further info relating to what was posted earlier]

>From The Greenpeace Media Release Server

Many Baikal Seals Died in the Area where the Baikal Pulp & Paper Mill Dumps
its Waste Waters

Irkutsk, Moscow, May 26 1997. Many dead Baikal seals - a unique animal ,
which lives only in the waters of Baikal - were found by ecologists.
Representatives of Greenpeace Russia immediately arrived at the site and
made photo and video shooting, which testifies information about deaths of
several dozens of Baikal seals in the southern part of the lake.
Animals which are dying or have already died were found near so called Murin
bank in 18
km from the Baikal Pulp & Paper Mill (BP&PM). During a quick survey of just
1.5 km of the coast, Greenpeace activists and experts from the Siberian
division of the Academy of Sciences of the RF found dead bodies each 50 m.

There may exist two causes for mass death of Baikal seal.

The first one is contamination of the water by discharges from the BP&PM,
which uses a hazardous chlorine technology for bleaching paper, resulting in
presence of many toxic substances, dioxins - strongest poison - included, in
the mill's discharges.

The infectious disease - plaque - is the other possible reason. However,
since the 1930s, there was registered only one case of such mass infection -
in 1987-88. Dead animals were found then along the whole coast of Baikal.
While at present dead bodies were discovered only in one area - in several
kilometres from the exhaust pipe of the BP&PM. The coastal stream, which
passes near the pipe, is also directed towards the place where most seals
were found. Even if seals died because of the infectious disease, the
disease could have been provoked by toxic releases of the mill, which had
considerably decreased resistance of animal organisms in the area of
discharges from the enterprise.

The third version was that Baikal seals died because of poachers' actions,
but during the study of remains of the animals it was rejected.  According
to the findings of the first research, the Baikal seal has  been dying for
at least one and a half month, but the ice which was  melting slowly didn't
allow to find it out earlier.

For more information contact: Greenpeace Russia, tel. [phone], Ivan
Blokov, Andrew Semenov. Irkutsk -3952 46 59 91 Roman Pukalov

Information for the editor:

Dioxins in the fat of the Baikal seal were found already ten years ago.
During the research of 1996, leading research officer of the Geological and
Chemical Institute of the Siberian
division of the Academy of Sciences of the RF Evgeniya Tarasova determined a
very high level of dioxins in the fat of animals - between 120-175 pg/kg.
These figures are comparable to and even exceed contents of this poison in
organisms of animal species, inhabiting the most polluted areas of the
Baltic sea.

Dutch scientists carried out a unique research on resistance of a seal's
organism to infectious diseases. They placed seals into two different
basins, the first group of animals was fed with usual fish from the Atlantic
ocean, while the second was given fish from the most dioxin polluted areas
of the Baltic sea. In a while both groups were plaque infected. The first
group survived it quite easily without any serious consequences, while the
animals of the second group died.

Greenpeace Russia has photo and video materials (including Betacam), which
show deaths of Baikal seals. All materials are available for journalists