THE SEA
OF people

It's 90s – a small village at the Aral sea shore. A fisher is running along the lane, crowing over and waving. He was out to sea to catch flat fish – the only species that survived here when the sea was gone, and he managed to catch carps. It was not just one or two carps, he has caught 110 fish. And it's for the first time during the last decade. People knew now – the fish was back. It meant their life was back.

In late 80s, the Small Aral sea became so salty
that all the fish died.

The Gloss flat fish was the only species that survived.
In early 90s, they built the first earth dam. The water came. The story about the fish to come back was told us by Sagatbay, an old fisherman, it was a story that happened to his father.

We asked the fishermen from the Small Aral to show us the sea of today.
One of the windows in Omirserik's house opens to the blue sliver of the sea, the other, on the opposite side opens to a white sandy desert. Camels walk slowly over the sands.

Omiserik's windows show the picture of their local world of today. The world that has the sea, the sand, the camels – nothing more.
Omirserik is the youngest fisherman in Tastubek village, he is 23.
He is the only child in his family, and he will not leave for the city, he will stay with his parents, in his village – it is a tradition here, he cannot abandon his parents.
Life in the village of Tastubek is steady, but not easy. During fishing season (part of spring, all the summer and part of autumn) the fishermen wake up before the dawn and are out to the sea in their old motor boats. They check the nets until lunch time, and take out the caught fish. The sea is still strong and stormy, though 90% of it dried up. If there is a storm, there is a chance for you to fail to return.


Only men are fishing here, you need to be strong and endurable – it is a hard job to put a net, pull out tens of kilograms of fish.

Women do not even think about fishing, they look after the livestock, keep the house and raise children. The village does not have a sewer, the drinking water is taken from a well, the nearest store is an hour and a half away.

After lunch, they go ashore to deliver their catch of fish to the fish processing plant. In the evening, they are back in the sea to net again.

Omirserik and his villagers-fishermen speak about how it is – their sea.
Tastubek is a village at the Small Aral sea. There are around 30 households now, they build 4-5 new ones every year. During the Soviets, Tastubek was a millionaire-collective farm. Local people are still considered to be well-to-do, they have excellent fishery. You can earn 100 or 200 thousand tenge (100 thousand tenge = $290) from one boat during one shift – when you work from the dawn till night, or you can have none. Everything depends on the sea – whether it gives you fish or not.
Video 360, you can watch it on Youtube using 3D-glasses
They sell their catch of fish to the fish pick-up center located here, in the village. A former fisherman built it three years ago, in 90s he left the village to start his own business. His story is a unique one for this place. He lives abroad now, and he has a manager who works in his fish pick-up center.
They weigh fish, and quick-freeze it at low temperature. It helps fish to keep longer. Then they sell fish to dealers, and it is supplied to Russia and Europe.
The owner of the fish processing plant has built a school in the village this year. It is a small private house. They opened an affiliate of the state primary school there – 1st through to 4th grades.
The students study in one room, each of them has a textbook for his age. There is one teacher for all the students. They have eight primary school students.
Elder students go to school in Aralsk or in bigger neighbouring villages and stay with their relatives.
The village population has two businesses – fishery and camel raising. In the morning, they milk female camels, and then all the camels are range-fed with camel's-thorn in the desert that lies right behind the village. In the evening, the camels come back home. They lie by the fences of houses, and wait for their owners to let them in the fenced area. At night, camels look huge as if they were airships.
Video 360, you can watch it on Youtube using 3D-glasses
Tastubek villagers are very unique people. They are always kidding at each other. Never saying a serious word.

For all that, they see for beauty and romance. It is conventional for them to have weddings in the city, brides in the family pictures wear rich wedding dresses and white lacy umbrellas. Somebody brought these umbrellas into fashion one day, and they became a 'must-have', an attribute to the wedding gear of the village girls.
Another thing is that each villager has his or her own treasure – safeguarded and valuable. Omirserik's treasure is his old motorbike; Zauresh, his mom's treasure is her TV set, she watches a programme called 'Fashion Verdict' there, Shymberghen's treasure - their neighbor and the oldest man in the village - is a small Chinese make radio.