The Selenter See () is the second-largest

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

in the North German state of

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sch ...

, after the Großer Plöner See. It lies at an elevation of and has an area of 22.4 km². The ''Selenter See'', which lies near the village of

Selent Selent is a municipality in the district of Plön, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated at the southern bank of the Selenter See The Selenter See () is the second-largest lake in the North German state of Schleswig-Holstein, after the ...

in the district of Plön, is 34 m deep. The lake drains into the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

through the

Hohenfelder Mühlenau The Hohenfelder Mühlenau is a stream, about long, in the district of Plön in northeast part of the North German state of Schleswig-Holstein. The Hohenfelder Mühlenau is classified as a gravel-bedded stream. It begins at the Selenter See in Ho ...

, only 10 km long, to the north and by the

Salzau The Salzau is a stream, roughly long, in the district of Plön in the North German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Course Together with the Mühlenau it is one of the two tailstreams of the lake known as the Selenter See. At its outlet into the ...

to the northwest. The formation of the ''Selenter See'' goes back to the ice sheets of the Weichselian glaciation, which hollowed out a basin and simultaneously formed ridges of terminal moraine up to 132 m high in the east and 90 m high in the south. From a geological point of view the lake is a so-called "tongue basin lake" or '' Zungenbeckensee''. The lake is well-known ''inter alia'' for plentiful supply of fish such as

eel Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 19 families, 111 genera, and about 800 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...

perch Perch is a common name for fish of the genus ''Perca'', freshwater gamefish belonging to the family Percidae. The perch, of which three species occur in different geographical areas, lend their name to a large order of vertebrates: the Percif ...

pike Pike, Pikes or The Pike may refer to: Fish * Blue pike or blue walleye, an extinct color morph of the yellow walleye ''Sander vitreus'' * Ctenoluciidae, the "pike characins", some species of which are commonly known as pikes * ''Esox'', genus of ...

, and large and small whitefish and large quantities of

roach Roach may refer to: Animals * Cockroach, various insect species of the order Blattodea * Common roach (''Rutilus rutilus''), a fresh and brackish water fish of the family Cyprinidae ** ''Rutilus'' or roaches, a genus of fishes * California roach ...

Bird reserve

There is a bird reserve called the ''Selenter See-Gebiet'' which covers the lake and its bordering

reed bed A reedbed or reed bed is a natural habitat found in floodplains, waterlogged depressions and estuaries. Reedbeds are part of a succession from young reeds colonising open water or wet ground through a gradation of increasingly dry ground. As ...

s and carr areas as well as the ''Gottesgabe Wood''. It is an important breeding, moulting and resting area for numerous birds including the kingfisher, bittern,

whooper swan The whooper swan ( /ˈhuːpə(ɹ) swɒn/) (''Cygnus cygnus''), also known as the common swan, pronounced ''hooper swan'', is a large northern hemisphere swan. It is the Eurasian counterpart of the North American trumpeter swan, and the type specie ...

goosander The common merganser (North American) or goosander (Eurasian) (''Mergus merganser'') is a large seaduck of rivers and lakes in forested areas of Europe, Asia, and North America. The common merganser eats mainly fish. It nests in holes in trees. ...

, great crested grebe, crane and

sea eagle A sea eagle or fish eagle (also called erne or ern, mostly in reference to the white-tailed eagle) is any of the birds of prey in the genus ''Haliaeetus'' in the bird of prey family Accipitridae. Taxonomy and evolution The genus ''Haliaeetus'' ...

. The reserve is managed by a charitable organisation, the LLUR.''LLUR überträgt ehrenamtliche Betreuung für EG-Vogelschutzgebiet "Selenter See-Gebiet"''.
Accessed on 21 Aug 2010,

References

External links

*
''Hydrobiological studies of four small streams in Schleswig-Holstein (Salzau, Hatener Au, Kossau and Osterau)''
at www.schriften.uni-kiel.de (University of Kiel). {{Authority control Lakes of Schleswig-Holstein LSelenterSee

Bird reserve

See also

References

External links