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 [Times photos: James Borchuck] Saken Janabergenov passes a beached fishing boat as he hauls a bucket of water up from the banks of the Amu Darya in Nukus, Uzbekistan. The river’s level has dropped because of irrigation, causing the Aral Sea that it once fed to shrink as well. |
 A man throws a line with a hook into a small pool of water near Moynaq in hopes of catching a fish. The last of the Aral Sea’s indigenous species of fish disappeared in 1985. With the sea receding, a few fish survive in the small remaining pools around the former port. |
 Children haul water to Moynaq from one of 39 wells that are scattered around town. The Aral Sea, already less than one half of its original size, is on its way to disappearing completely. Its shore lies 80 miles away from Moynaq. |
 Sergei Bakaushin tries on his old ship captain’s uniform at his home in Moynaq. The retreating sea “hit us hard,” said Bakaushin. “We started chasing after the water.” |
  Sergei Bakaushin, 67, above, is a former ship’s captain and port captain for Moynaq. rRight, he steers a ship during his piloting days. Today, Bakaushin has little to do but sit around the house with his wife, mourning the disappearance of the Aral Sea.
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 A man walks by the rusting shell of a fishing boat in Moynaq, a former port in Uzbekistan that has been left dry by the receding Aral Sea. The community, which had been sustained by fishing and the port, is now a graveyard for old ships. |
 A 7-year-old boy looks over some fish for sale at the Moynaq bazaar. In 1960, more than 43,000 tons of fish were caught in the Aral Sea. On this day, there were fewer than 25 fish available to buy in the former port. |
© Copyright 2001 St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.
