Shrinking Caspian Sea worries environmental activists

FILE - A person jogs past dead seals washed up on the coast of the Caspian Sea in Makhachkala, Russia, Dec. 6, 2022. One impact of the sea's shrinking is on the habitat for seals and sturgeons. The dropping water levels have also hurt local residents' livelihoods. The yellow area indicates the approximate drainage area around the Caspian Sea. FILE - A dirt road stretches through the desert that used to be the bed of the Aral Sea, on the outskirts of Muynak, Uzbekistan, June 27, 2023. Some environmentalists warn that the Aral offers a cautionary tale for the Caspian Sea. In July 2008, the level of the Caspian Sea was more than two dozen meters higher than in 2024, near Aktau, Kazakhstan.

Residents of Aqtau, a Kazakhstani port city located on the northeastern shore of the Caspian Sea, are on edge these days. For more than two decades, they have watched the Caspian Sea shrink and the local economy wither.