The Aral Sea (continued)

The Aral Sea tragedy meant no fish for the people who may have relied on those fish for jobs and food. Work was scarce as no one had much to offer. Medical problems also arose from the salty and chemical-filled soil and poor water quality, and also from diseases that swept through the area.

"By 1977 the commercial fish catch had declined by over seventy-five per cent, and a few years later, in 1982, commercial fishing ceased altogether, shutting down an industry that had caught a sustainable 50,000 tons a year and had employed nearly 60,000 people. A few species survived in the three, small saline lakes that the Aral Sea has become, but most of the fish died. The fish cannery in Muynaq tried to stay in business by buying fish at great coasts from Murmansk and Arkhangelsk, the soviet arctic ports, but when the Soviet Union collapsed, that lifeline dried up too." (De Villiers)

Not only were people affected but also most of the plants, fish and other animals around the Aral Sea were affected by the irrigational cannels’ siphoning of water from the two rivers leading into this mother of water. “These two rivers [the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya] are the only real source of fresh water in a system that comprises 1.5 million square kilometres and somewhere around 35 million people. It used to be bounded almost entirely within the old Soviet Union” (De Villiers.) As this life-giving sea of water quickly disappeared, many side effects happened. Firstly, the luscious plants that once existed died from lack of water including the “thick desert forests, once unique to the Aral Sea's irreplaceable and distinctive ecosystem” (Bissell.) Most of the plants that were left were the cactuses and the vegetation that could endure the lack of water and had roots that went deep. Consequently, all the animals either left or died from hunger. “The marine environment became hostile to the sea life in it, killing the plants and animals. As the marine life died, the fishing industry suffered” (www.orexca.com.) The fishing industry did indeed suffer greatly.

Also “of the 178 species of animal life that have historically called the Aral Sea home, only 38 now survive” (Bissell.)

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