How did the Aral Sea affect the fishing industry?

At its peak in 1957, the Aral Sea produced more than 48,000 tons of fish, representing roughly 13 percent of the Soviet Union’s fish stocks. By the 1980s, due to the rising salinity of the sea, the 20 native species of fish were decimated; commercial harvests plummeted to zero by 1987.

What happened to the fishing industry after the Aral Sea shrunk?

The Aral Sea supported a thriving commercial fishing industry employing roughly 60,000 people in the early 1960s. By 1977, the fish harvest was reduced by 75 percent, and by the early 1980s the commercial fishing industry had been eliminated.

What resources does the Aral Sea provide?

The Aral Sea Basin is rich with natural resources: iron ore, non-ferrous metals, oil and gas, large deposits of coal, copper, lead, tin, tungsten, molybdenum, fluorite, lithium, gold, silver, antimony, and mercury. Under the Soviet empire, the amount of acreage under irrigation in the Aral region nearly tripled.

What was the main crop that needed the water from the Aral Sea?

The world’s fourth largest lake in 1960, the Aral Sea has already shrunk to half its former size – a result of unsustainable cotton cultivation that began less than 40 years ago.

What industry has suffered because of the shrinking of the Aral Sea?

The once prosperous fishing industry has been virtually destroyed, and former fishing towns along the original shores have become ship graveyards. With this collapse has come unemployment and economic hardship.

Does the Aral Sea have fish?

However, the Aral Sea basin had an exceptional array of endemic fish subspecies (as well as the three endemic sturgeon species). Most of these still survive in the North Aral Sea, but some, such as the sturgeons, have been decimated or even driven to extinction by the lake’s shrinkage.

What resources did the Aral Sea supply to the local inhabitants?

5: What resources did the Aral Sea supply to the local inhabitants? Resources that the Aral Sea supplied were fish, water, transportation and recreation.

What is Aral Sea used for?

The water from the diverted Syr Darya river is used to irrigate about two million hectares (5,000,000 acres) of farmland in the Ferghana Valley. The Aral Sea region is heavily polluted, with consequent serious public health problems.

Are there fish in the Aral Sea?

Despite its former vast size, the Aral Sea had relatively low indigenous biodiversity. However, the Aral Sea basin had an exceptional array of endemic fish subspecies (as well as the three endemic sturgeon species).

Why were there no fish in Aral Sea?

Overfishing is catching too many fish and at faster rate than what they can reproduce and grow. This means that year after year there are fewer and fewer fish to catch and consume. Actually, this is one of the most critical issues facing our oceans.

What kind of fish are in the Aral Sea?

It contained freshwater fish species including carp, rudd, perch, sturgeon, stickleback and zander, the latter being the most commercially important to the Aral Sea fishermen. As the Aral Sea reduced in size the salinity levels of the remaining water began to increase, reaching 100 g/l in the South Aral Sea (7).

Why was the water supply to the Aral Sea diverted?

Beginning about 1960, the Aral Sea’s water level was systematically and drastically reduced, because of the diversion of water from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers for purposes of agricultural irrigation.