© Dieter Telemans / Panos Pictures..Muynak, Aral Sea, UZBEKISTAN..Saghiev Talasbai, 61, with a photograph taken when he was 30. Talasbai worked for 12 years as an engineer on the ship No.1781. The vessel probably ended up as fire wood. 15 km from Muynak lie the metal remains of the fleet; on this spot, they worked day and night dredging a canal so as to be able to continue to reach the sea. When the canal was 5km long, the struggle was abandoned. The salinity of the water was so high that few fish species could continue to survive there. Photo: Dieter Telemans / Panos Pictures/Felix Features