On a sun-scorched shoreline in Iraq's southern marshlands, fishermen stood shoveling a grim catch: tiny fish gathered dead from the water, fit only for use as animal fodder.
Locals once lived self-sufficient lives in the vast freshwater areas that make up the UNESCO-recognized Iraqi Marshlands, filling their nets with varieties of fish and keeping large herds of water buffalo.
But in recent years, droughts in the rivers that feed the marshes have led them to recede and turn brackish as the nearby sea infiltrates, leading to the disappearance of fish and threatening a way of life that goes back centuries.