Great Central Lake
| Great Central Lake | ||
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| Geographical location | Vancouver Island in British Columbia (Canada) | |
| Drain | Stamp River → Somass River → Alberni Inlet | |
| Location close to the shore | Port Alberni | |
| Data | ||
| Coordinates | 49 ° 21 ′ N , 125 ° 7 ′ W | |
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| Altitude above sea level | 82 m | |
| surface | 51 km² | |
| length | 45 km | |
| Maximum depth | 294 m | |
| Middle deep | 124 m | |
| Catchment area | 308 km² | |
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particularities |
The water level is regulated (1–1.5 m); Renewal / revolution: 3.7 years |
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The Great Central Lake is the second largest freshwater lake on Vancouver Iceland in the Canadian province of British Columbia . The lake, which is elongated in an east-west direction, is located northwest of Port Alberni in the center of the island.
The narrow lake is over 40 km long and has an area of 51 km². Its maximum depth is 294 m. It was formed during the last ice age .
Petroglyphs on the west side of the lake indicate the presence of early members of today's First Nations . However, they are now underwater as the water level was raised by a dam on the Stamp River in the 1950s to generate electricity. Before that, there was a large logging camp by the lake, from where the surrounding area was largely cut down. Operators were Bloedel, Stewart & Welch in Port Alberni , who also built a railway line in 1933 to be able to transport the large trees away.
The first non-indigenous inhabitants of the lake included Joe Drinkwater and his wife Della, after whom he named Della Lake and the almost 500 m high Della Falls . Today it is only accessible via a 20 km hiking trail from Great Central Lake.
Japanese fishermen came to the region at the end of the 19th century, but they were expropriated during World War II and deported in 1942. At that time, 58 Japanese were living at the lake. Chinese and Indians also worked there.
A fish hatchery on Robertson Creek processed trout and salmon. In order to increase the fish yield, over 100 tons of fertilizer were added to the lake every year from 1970 to 1973. In order to be able to determine the success, the fish yield was compared with that of the neighboring Sproat Lake , to which no fertilizer was added. In 1974 the experiment was interrupted, then resumed. In 1982, after the salmon population had skyrocketed, the method was transferred to 13 other lakes known as breeding grounds for sockeye salmon . Today the salmon populations have fallen sharply.
Web links
- World Lakes Database: Great Central Lake , archive.org, January 29, 2013
- Great Central Lake
Individual evidence
- ^ GeoBC: BC Geographical Names. Retrieved October 6, 2016 .
- ^ Gordon Hugh Hak: Capital and labor in the British Columbia forest industry, 1934-74 , University of British Columbia Press, 2007, p. 21.
- ^ Gordon Hugh Hak: Capital and labor in the British Columbia forest industry, 1934-74 , University of British Columbia Press, 2007, p. 76.
- ↑ Charles J. Krebs: The Message of Ecology , Delhi, undated, pp. 72-74.