Finland - The Ringed Seal Archipelagos of Lake Saimaa

"The planned property includes parts of Lake Saimaa, located in south-eastern Finland, which is the largest lake in Finland (4 400 square km2) and among the four largest lakes in Europe. The national serial nomination would be based on Natura 2000 areas within the lake that are the most important breeding areas for the endemic Saimaa ringed seal (Phoca hispida saimensis), of which the endangered population does not exist anywhere else in the world other than Lake Saimaa. The lake´s open waters, sheltered bays, small rocky islets and boreal forested islands provide a varied living and breeding environment for several other fish, insect, bird and mammal species.

After the last glaciation in the area, the ice sheet melted, around 11 000 years ago. Lake Saimaa was shaped as a result of land uplift and was isolated over 9 500 years ago from the Baltic Sea. In the first stage, the Great Saimaa lake system connected eastern Finland’s lakes together before the separation resulting from the land uplift. Due to the land uplift and leaning after glaciation, the shape of the water basins has been changing and the direction of the runoff changed dramatically 6 000 years ago, which caused the water from Saimaa to run through the Vuoksi outlet to Lake Ladoga. The lake has been an important passageway and has had settlements in the area for thousands of years. The rock paintings in the area are around 5 000 years old.

Lake Saimaa represents the Finnish lake district area, and its catchment basin covers nearly all of eastern Finland. In its current form, the whole lake is 180 km in length and 140 km in width. This beautiful lake, with its 14 000 islands, has a fragmented, maze-like structure and an extraordinarily long shoreline of 14 850 km. Lake Saimaa is characterised by clean, oligotrophic freshwater and narrow straits between numerous islands varying together with large water bodies. In addition, the ridges formed by ice during the glaciation, bare craggy shorelines and some sandy beaches bring variation to the landscape. The landscape also varies within the four seasons in the north, and the whole lake is ice covered, normally from early-mid December to the end of April."

Source: UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List

Lake Saimaa is the largest lake in Finland and the 4th largest in Europe. Mailed on January 1, 2011, postmarked Kuopio and arrived in Penang on January 19, 2011. Thanks to Heidi of Finland.