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Extinct Aral Sea fish species
Extinct Aral Sea fish species. Preserved specimens of fish that used to be found in the Aral Sea, in Central Asia, that became extinct as the sea dried up. The Aral Sea was once one of the world's largest inland seas, with a thriving fishing industry, but canals dug by the Soviet Union in the 1930s diverted the sea's major rivers to irrigate cotton fields. From the 1960s, the sea started to shrink, and by 2004 some 75 percent of the sea's area had been lost. The remaining water has tripled in salinity and is heavily contaminated by toxins, heavy metals and agricultural chemicals. This environmental disaster has led to the disappearance of the old flora and fauna, and to changes in the climate and the seasons.
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