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Shoyna is a small fishing village located on the
Kanin Peninsula in Northern Russia.
Situated on the edge of the arctic circle, the inhabitants of this
coastal village has to endure not only the cold but the huge amount of
sand that stretches for tens of kilometers all along the coast of the
White Sea.
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The dunes continually migrate up and down the coast by the action of the
westerly wind, and can bury houses up to the roof in a single night.
Residents take precaution not to close the door at night, because by
morning, it might not open. The village has a bulldozer that is
frequently in action, digging up homes.
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The village was settled in the 1930s by fishing families because of the
abundance of fish and sea life in the waters. By the 1950s, it grew to a
pretty large settlement with 1,500 residents.
Together they owned more than seventy vessels. But reckless trawling
over the decades decimated the fish population and eventually the
fishery collapsed. Today, just three hundred people live at Shoyna
supported mainly by unemployment benefits and pensions.
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Some earn a living from hunting. There are large number of geese in the
region.
More than half of the village is now buried under sand dunes deposited
by the wind.
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It is thought that damage to permafrost and destruction of the sea
bottom released the sand.
The village is connected by neither roads nor railroads. Transportation
to the outside world is by ship or air.
There is a civilian airport consisting of a 650-meter dirt runway. |