Disappearance of the Aral Sea & the Moynaq Ship Graveyard

güttsfükk · #1 ● 10-07-2012, 07:56 AM

in the 60s the ussr had an irrigation project which led them to divert the rivers which were feeding the aral sea, at that point the fourth largest lake in the world. it had a size of 42500 square miles or 68000square km.

the fishing industry on this lake which employed roughly 40000 in uzbekistan and kazakhstan and was providing around 1/6 of the whole of the ussr's fish caught.

but the irrigation system put in place to try and grow melons, cotton, rice and some other produce in the desert, left the sea's level has been dropping roughly 20cm per year for the first 10 years, then around 50cm a year for the next 10 years and since the 80s around a meter a year.

in the northwest region of uzbekistan, the largest port Moynaq (also spelled as Muynak and Moynaq) is now around 100miles or 160km from the shoreline of the aral sea. the retreating water left a huge ship graveyard with hundreds of ships, a canal was dug to try and prevent the damage done but it was no use. a lot of the ships have been taken for scrap metal now, but there are still some rusting ones left.

some of the fishermen became camel farmers, and camels wander where the aral sea once was, the retreating sea also had an impact on the weather, and the area now has blistering hot summers and very cold winters. they also get poisonous dust storms in the area which cause chronic illnesses fpr those who have chosen to stay.

there are some efforts to try and save the remaining body of water which is less than 10% of the size it used to be.

The Aral Sea from space in 1998 and 2008.

The picture below shows the Aral Sea from space in 2009, the black outline shows where the shoreline was in 1960

the last few pix and the video/documentary segment at the end are by