It is thought that damage to permafrost and destruction of the sea bottom released the sand, which has overwhelmed residents' abilities to control the drifts.

[4] The collective farm no longer operates; today, just three hundred inhabitants live at Shoyna, supported mainly by unemployment benefits and pensions.

[9] The village is also the subject of the documentary Between Sky and Sand (2017) [10] Shoyna lies immediately south of the 167 square kilometer Shoyninsky State Nature Reserve, established in 1997 to protect the spring and autumn staging area for the lesser white-fronted goose (Anser erythropus), an Arctic species threatened with extinction.

[11] In 2002, Dutch researchers discovered that the nearby Shoyna marsh is an important stopover site for brent and barnacle geese, with counts approaching almost ten percent of the total Russian flyway population.

[12] Shoyna has a subarctic climate (Dfc) with short, moderately warm summers and long, cold winters.