Nakaumi Ramsar: Lake Nakaumi

Lake Nakaumi
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Lake Nakaumi
Introduction
Lake Nakaumi is an enclosed lagoon situated in south west Japan and has halocline and polyhaline conditions. Lake Nakaumi is the fifth biggest lake in the country of Japan and is located between the Tottori and Shimane prefectures. It is a distinct lake because it has four cities located on its shores. The cities are Sakaiminato, Yasugi, Yonago and Matsue. Lake Nakaumi has a varying environment. The lake has natural preserves with water fowls, several shrines and temples on the main land. The lake has two islands, Daikon and Eshima which are connected to the mainland by bridges (Kara, 2010). This paper looks at the biodiversity, culture and geographical location of Lake Nakaumi in Japan.
Nakaumi is a Japanese term for an inner sea mainly because it has salty water due to mixing with the waters in the Japan Sea. Nakaumi Lake has varying hydro graphic conditions which vary with seasons. Benthic fauna has seasonal changes which are conspicuous. The hydro graphic conditions of Lake Nakaumi due to repairmen works carried out on carried out on waterways that connect the water to the sea.
Lake Nakaumi together with its surrounding regions has been used has been intensively been used for fishing since it has various varieties of shrimps, fish, mollusks and other fish products of economic importance. Lake Nakaumi the largest lagoon at the Japan Sea coast and is set aside from the sea by sand bars and sand dunes. Land reclamation is being carried out which will change lake Nakaumi and lake Shinjiko to fresh water lakes when completed. This will change the environmental conditions and many of the nektonic organisms will not be able to migrate between Miho bay and Lake Nakaumi (Menotti, 2012).
Fig 1. Lake Nakaumi. Source: Japan Tourist.
According to Menotti, (2012), Nakaumi wetland is crucial as a habitat of water birds and therefore forms a basis of formation of ecological systems. In modern times, the organisms and species number has lowered due to deterioration of environment around Lake Nakaumi. Lake Nakaumi is an important wetland with aquatic plant species, insects, fish, benthic animals, insects and antidae water birds. The land reclamation project was discontinued in Lake Nakaumi in year 2000 and the Honjou area was left unclaimed (Menotti, 2012). The project on desalination was also halted after a short period.
The Nakaumi lake system combined with Lake Shinji's river waters and the sea waters that flow into it creates a brackish fertile lake environment that converges marine life, sea and Fish River, and settlements by humans due to the various rich sources of food. Despite this, the dimensions and topography of this area have been under pressure from human encroachment. The size of the area was originally 97 km2 but due to human encroachment it has been reduced to 88.5 km2 and the area will be reduced to 70km2 with continued encroachment. Since the olden days, the area around Nakaumi Lake has been a prosperous area (Nakata, Horiguchi, & Yamamuro, 2000). The Izumo state flourished in the area in ancient times. This is due to the fact that the area is strategically located at the Japanese sea coast centre. The area also has a safe harbor of Sakai Minato which is still one of the finest ports ...