Long ago in the land of Greece the ancient gods and their people loved to eat. But there was a problem. The people started getting bored of the same old Bland food until one day an explorer discovered salt. Initially it was a rock but after it was turned into powder, everyone yearned to use it on their food. Even the gods loved to use it with food. All the gods loved it except for one; Hades. There was only one problem with salt, if anyone from the underworld were to eat it, it could only be eaten there. So, all the gods forbid Hades to have salt.

The ocean was also a very different place. It was full of life. Fish were plentiful and were often as big as the humans that caught them. But that all changed on the faithful day.

One day Hermes was particularly bored and was looking for something fun to do. He got hungry and bought some salted bread, with the bread he decided to visit Hades. 

“Why art thou eating in my palace, allow me to fetch thy some food” said Hades.

“No matter, I have here some salted bread” replied Hermes “would thy like some?” he had completely forgotten that Hades couldn’t eat salt. 

“Get out of my sight!” said Hades enraged. Now he was going to get rid of salt forever. Hades understood that if he got rid of it in the open all of Greece would hate him, but he had a more cunning plan in mind. He planned to send a spirit demon into the soul of The King of Olympia where all the Salt of Greece was mined. 

When all the salt mines were exhausted the possessed King decided to withhold all of the salt, much to the anger of the gods and the rest of Greece. The townsfolk decided to ram down the door to his palace and take the salt for themselves. When the King realized what was happening he loaded up all the salt onto his ship and set sail for the Ionian Sea. With the immense weight of the ship some of the salt fell out and killed a few fish. Unfortunately the god of the sea Poseidon was there. It enraged him so much to see his fish die that he summoned a huge tsunami and destroyed the king’s ship. 

This was a huge mistake for it caused all the salt on the ship to fall in the sea. But what Poseidon did not know was that the great wave had also spread the salt to the four corners of the world killing many fish in its wake. Zeus was furious but did not know who to blame, yet it would not change the fact that the Greeks would never be able to have salt again or that they would not catch nearly the same number of fish. And that is why the ocean is salty.

NASA Photos of the Aral sea, from Wikimedia

This inland sea of many lakes was a popular resort destination for family vacations, and recreation. This used to be a sea thriving with fish. There used to be marshes teaming with wildlife along some shores, sandy beaches on others. In fact the Aral Sea, and surrounding area was so teaming with life it was often compared to many places in Africa for terms of biodiversity. When the sea began to die, people, no longer able to make their livelihood on the fisheries, lost their homes, their ways of life, but that wasn’t the worst of it.

The shoreline is now up to 150 kilometers from where it once was in some areas, the depth has dropped by about 17 meters, and climate change has been reported.

Aralsk Harbor, once a common fishing harbor, now littered with dead vessels.  Photo from Wikimedia

To make a sea disappear you simply have to stop giving it water.

Two rivers used to flow into the Aral Sea, the Syr Darya and Amu Darya, bringing with them as much water as the Nile carries. Plans for an intensive agriculture system were about to change all this. The Aral seas road to obscurity began in the 1960’s when water was diverted to irrigate farm land. Cotton production was the name of the game. Millions of liters of water which would normally replenish the sea were being used to grow crops in the surrounding desert regions. Today the two rivers are often so drained they are completely dry by the time they get to the Aral Sea.

Of all the crops grown, grain, melons, and so forth, the largest industry was cotton production. The demand for cotton was high, not only with the area, but for exportation purposes too. It was referred to as “white gold”.

Without new water entering the Aral, it began to shrink, becoming more and more salty every year, eventually fish stocks died, fish were washing ashore in mass numbers, unable to live in the salty conditions. The sea was also becoming a center for concentrated pollution. This Pollution came from several sources, one being weapons testing, but additionally there was fertilizer run off and pesticides.

No more fish and what else?

Any time pollution increases in an area, so too do human health problems. This is particularly the case when the concern is water pollution. It is difficult to determine just how many health problems are due to the pollution in the water, of course such statistics are hard to prove, but it has been seen that mortality rates and rates of health problems have increased in the area since the late 1960’s.

Not just fish and people suffered. Many of the flora and fauna died out. The Bukhara deer which once flourished in the area now number below 500. Certainly some species of wildlife were lost in the area if not altogether.

Moynag Uzbekistan, now 150 kilometers from water, Photo from Wikimeda. 

Can it Reappear?

Actions have been taken to restore some of the damage done, it has been proven that most of the canals and aqueducts are not in good condition and much water is lost before it even reaches the fields, thus more water is taken than is needed. In 2003 a dam was constructed to help retain water in the North part of the sea. You can see from the photos, how little this has done to improve the Aral Sea as a whole.

This photo is from October 2008, from Wikimedia.  It breaks my heart. 

In the grand scheme everyone who buys cotton is contributing to this problem unless they know where it came from, and can be certain it did not come from Uzbekistan, as this is the prime export for the region, and the prime contributor of the problem.

As our population grows, we continue to demand things, we seldom take the time to look at where those things come from. It is time to look.

Other Links of Interest

The Holocene Extinction Event

An Early Mistake in Paleontology

Ghost Nets:  Death in the Ocean

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Cottage Owners Destroying Lakes in Alberta, and Around the World

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