Once the fourth largest lake in the world, the Aral Sea now covers only about 10% of its original area. The consequences for local communities, who traditionally lived from fishing, are severe. Former coastal zones have turned into pesticide-contaminated salt deserts, leading to widespread respiratory health issues.

Three articles from different time periods form a chronological text layer, revealing that awareness of the issue existed as early as the 1980s — when the crisis was still widely downplayed or ignored. The amount of text per page gradually decreases throughout the publication, mirroring the shrinking of the lake. Readers must increasingly exert effort to access the content, just as fishermen once had to travel farther to reach the receding shoreline. The text is supplemented by cartographic elements and photography.