A RAMSAR SITELAKE AKKESHI - BEKANBEUSHI MARSH
A RAMSAR SITE
Lake Akkeshi is a shallow and brackish lake adjoining Akkeshi bay with a perimeter of 26 km. It is famed for its oyster and short-necked clam farming. At low tide several "tidelands" become exposed which provide good feeding grounds for waterfowl. For this reason, Japanese Crane breed here from spring to autumn whilst Whooper Swan(Cygnus cygnus), over ten species of wild geese, ducks, White-tailed Sea Eagle(Haliaeetus albicilla) and Steller's Sea Eagle(H. pelagicus) are to be found here from autumn to spring.
The Bekanbeushi Marsh is an 8,200 hectare fen in which most of the plants are reeds, sedges and alders. Sphagnums grow in the middle of the Bekanbeushi river. Beyond this, alpine plants flourish in a 100 hectare bog which was discovered in 1989.
Such a find was scientifically valuable since all of the habitats of the fen lay untouched by human hands for such a long time. Moreover, this discovery has revealed something of the development of wetland for fen to bog.
As the "Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat" was adopted in Ramsar, Iran, in 1971, the convention is also called the Ramsar Convention.
The Ramsar Convention aims to protect, to preserve, and to wisely use wetlands as habitats for wildlife, particularly for waterfowl, through international cooperation.