The Ébrié Lagoon lies in

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...

, separated for almost all of its length from the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Afr ...

by a narrow coastal strip. The long

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into '' coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons' ...

is linked to the sea by the Vridi Canal, while the Comoë River flows into it. The lagoon averages 4 km (2½ mi) in width, and in depth.

Abidjan Abidjan ( , ; N'Ko script, N’ko: ߊߓߌߖߊ߲߬) is the economic capital of the Ivory Coast. As of the Demographics of Ivory Coast, 2021 census, Abidjan's population was 6.3 million, which is 21.5 percent of overall population of the country, ...

and towns such as Grand Bassam,

Bingerville Bingerville is a town in south-eastern Ivory Coast. It is a suburb of Abidjan and is one of four sub-prefectures of Abidjan Autonomous District. Bingerville is also a commune. The town is located about 10 kilometres east of Abidjan and lies on t ...

, Jacqueville,

Attécoubé Attécoubé ( Ebrié: Abidjan Te) is a suburb of and one of the 10 urban communes of Abidjan, Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Afri ...

, and Tiagba lie on the lagoon.

Geography

The Ébrié Lagoon is a long narrow lagoon complex located in the south of Ivory Coast. It lies parallel with the coast on an east/west axis and consists of several linked lagoons. At the eastern end it is linked by a channel to the Aghien and Potou Lagoons, into which the Mé River flows. The other major rivers flowing into the lagoon are the Komoé River in the east, the

Agnéby River The Agneby River, also known as the Agbo River, is a river in Ivory Coast in West Africa. The river originates from springs near Agoua in the region of Bongouanou, flows southwards and empties into the Ébrié Lagoon in the south of the country. T ...

in the centre, and the Ira River in the west. At the western end, Ébrié is linked by the Asagni Canal to the Tagba Lagoon and the

Bandama River The Bandama River is the longest river in Ivory Coast with a length of some 800 kilometers. The south-flowing river is fed by the Marahoué, Solomougou, Kan and Nzi rivers and empties into the Tagba Lagoon and the Gulf of Guinea. The Bandama ...

. It is connected to the

Gulf of Guinea The Gulf of Guinea is the northeasternmost part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean from Cape Lopez in Gabon, north and west to Cape Palmas in Liberia. The intersection of the Equator and Prime Meridian (zero degrees latitude and longitude) is in the ...

by the Vridi Canal, which was opened as a navigable channel in 1950. The natural mouth of the complex is at

Grand-Bassam Grand-Bassam () is a town in southeastern Ivory Coast, lying east of Abidjan. It is a sub-prefecture of and the seat of Grand-Bassam Department; it is also a commune. During the late 19th century, Grand-Bassam was briefly the French colonial ...

, but this tends to silt up during the dry season. There are several large and many small islands in the lagoon. The cities of

, Jacqueville,

, Tiagba and Dabou lie beside the lagoon and it is crossed by four bridges. Coucher de soleil lagune Ébrié Abidjan

The Ébrié Lagoon has an area of approximately , a maximum length of , and a maximum width of . The average depth is and the maximum depth is . The amount of fresh water entering the lagoon varies with the time of year, but averages per year, and tidal exchanges with the sea average per year. The water is brackish, varying in salinity from 0 to 35‰. It is also turbid and polluted, especially near Abidjan, with high levels of

nitrogen Nitrogen is the chemical element with the symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a nonmetal and the lightest member of group 15 of the periodic table, often called the pnictogens. It is a common element in the universe, estimated at seve ...

and

phosphate In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthophosphoric acid . The phosphate or orthophosphate ion is derived from phosph ...

Flora and fauna

There are extensive areas around the lagoon dominated by

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in several ...

s such as ''

Rhizophora racemosa ''Rhizophora racemosa'' is a species of mangrove tree in the family Rhizophoraceae. It has a patchy distribution on the Pacific coast of Central and South America, occurs in places on the Atlantic coast of that continent, and has a more widesprea ...

'', and the golden leather fern ''

Acrostichum aureum ''Acrostichum aureum'', the golden leather fern, is a large species of fern that grows in mangrove swamps and other wet locations. Other common names include swamp fern and mangrove fern. Description The golden leather fern has large fronds ...

''. Elsewhere, there are floating

aquatic plant Aquatic plants are plants that have adapted to living in aquatic environments ( saltwater or freshwater). They are also referred to as hydrophytes or macrophytes to distinguish them from algae and other microphytes. A macrophyte is a plant that ...

s in the bays and backwaters, and reeds, sedges and grasses at the edges of the water. The lagoon is separated from the sea by a sandbar and much of the terrain close to the lagoon is swampy, with taller vegetation and some trees. In the shallow parts of the lagoon there are a range of

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

s including

polychaete Polychaeta () is a paraphyletic class of generally marine annelid worms, commonly called bristle worms or polychaetes (). Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that bear many bristles, called chaetae, which are ...

worms,

nemertea Nemertea is a phylum of animals also known as ribbon worms or proboscis worms, consisting of 1300 known species. Most ribbon worms are very slim, usually only a few millimeters wide, although a few have relatively short but wide bodies. Many h ...

n worms,

oligochaete Oligochaeta () is a subclass of animals in the phylum Annelida, which is made up of many types of aquatic and terrestrial worms, including all of the various earthworms. Specifically, oligochaetes comprise the terrestrial megadrile earthworm ...

isopod Isopoda is an order of crustaceans that includes woodlice and their relatives. Isopods live in the sea, in fresh water, or on land. All have rigid, segmented exoskeletons, two pairs of antennae, seven pairs of jointed limbs on the thorax, an ...

s, amphipods and

prawn Prawn is a common name for small aquatic crustaceans with an exoskeleton and ten legs (which is a member of the order decapoda), some of which can be eaten. The term "prawn"Mortenson, Philip B (2010''This is not a weasel: a close look at nature ...

s. Over a hundred species of fish have been recorded in the lagoon, and it and the surrounding swamps are home to the

African manatee The African manatee (''Trichechus senegalensis''), also known as the West African manatee, is a species of manatee that inhabits much of the western region of Africa – from Senegal to Angola. It is the only manatee species to be found in the O ...

, the

pygmy hippopotamus The pygmy hippopotamus or pygmy hippo (''Choeropsis liberiensis'') is a small hippopotamid which is native to the forests and swamps of West Africa, primarily in Liberia, with small populations in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Ivory Coast. It has b ...

, the

Nile crocodile The Nile crocodile (''Crocodylus niloticus'') is a large crocodilian native to freshwater habitats in Africa, where it is present in 26 countries. It is widely distributed throughout sub-Saharan Africa, occurring mostly in the central, eastern ...

, the

West African slender-snouted crocodile The West African slender-snouted crocodile (''Mecistops cataphractus''), or slender-snouted crocodile, is a critically endangered species of African crocodile. It is one of five species of crocodile in Africa, the other four being the Central A ...

and the

dwarf crocodile The dwarf crocodile (''Osteolaemus tetraspis''), also known as the African dwarf crocodile, broad-snouted crocodile (a name more often used for the Asian mugger crocodile) or bony crocodile, is an African crocodile that is also the smallest ext ...

. Birds such as the

African darter The African darter (''Anhinga rufa''), sometimes called the snakebird, is a water bird of sub-Saharan Africa and Iraq. Taxonomy The African darter is a member of the darter family, Anhingidae, and is closely related to American (''Anhinga anh ...

, the

Pel's fishing owl Pel's fishing owl (''Scotopelia peli'') is a large species of owl in the family Strigidae. The species is found in Africa and lives near rivers and lakes. It feeds nocturnally on fish and frogs snatched from the surface of lakes and rivers. Th ...

, the white-crested tiger heron and the

goliath heron The Goliath heron (''Ardea goliath''), also known as the giant heron, is a very large wading bird of the heron family, Ardeidae. It is found in sub-Saharan Africa, with smaller, declining numbers in Southwest and South Asia. Description This ...

breed here.

Human use

Parts of the lagoon are highly polluted. Chemical pollution comes from the agricultural and industrial activity in the catchment area, with

fertiliser A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...

run off occurring particularly in the wet season. Organic and bacterial pollution occurs mainly in urban areas, with high levels of ''

Escherichia coli ''Escherichia coli'' (),Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ngland Pearson Education Ltd. also known as ''E. coli'' (), is a Gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus '' Esc ...

'' and ''

Clostridium perfringens ''Clostridium perfringens'' (formerly known as ''C. welchii'', or ''Bacillus welchii'') is a Gram-positive, rod-shaped, anaerobic, spore-forming pathogenic bacterium of the genus '' Clostridium''. ''C. perfringens'' is ever-present in nature an ...

'' being detected. There is an

artisanal fishery Artisanal fishing (or traditional/subsistence fishing) consists of various small-scale, low-technology, low-capital, fishing practices undertaken by individual fishing households (as opposed to commercial fishing). Many of these households ar ...

on the lagoon, employing about seven thousand people using four thousand boats with a potential annual catch of around . The bonga shad (''Ethmalosa fimbriata'') accounts for about 75% of the catch, especially in the more polluted waters near Abidjan where it is more abundant than other species. Other fish are found away from the urban areas in unpolluted waters, with the

Atlantic bumper The Atlantic bumper (''Chloroscombrus chrysurus'') is a game fish in the family, Carangidae. It was first described by the "father of modern taxonomy", Carl Linnaeus in the book, ''Systema Naturae''. Atlantic bumper are known to eat smaller fish, ...

(''Chloroscombrus chrysurus'') and the Madeiran sardinella (''Sardinella maderensis'') being abundant, and the Guinean striped mojarra (''Gerres nigri'') and Senegal jack (''Caranx senegallus'') also contributing to the catch.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ebrie Lagoon Lagoons of Ivory Coast Abidjan