Lake Saroma
About the Lake Saroma Camera
This camera looks over Lake Saroma, a large brackish lagoon separated from the Sea of Okhotsk by a narrow sandbar. At roughly 152 square kilometres, it's Japan's third-largest lake and one of its most productive waters for scallop and oyster farming.
The lake also hosts the Saroma-ko 100km ultramarathon each June, one of Japan's best-known ultra-distance races, run along the lakeshore roads.
The sandbar that makes the lake is the striking part. It runs about 20 kilometres yet is only 150 to 500 metres wide, holding back a lake of over 150 square kilometres that averages under nine metres deep. That shallow, sheltered brackish water is why aquaculture took hold here, and Saroma is generally credited as the birthplace of scallop cultivation in Japan.
Highlights & Nearby
- •Watch for: lake surface and water conditions, weather over the Okhotsk coast, aquaculture activity
- •Nearby: the Okhotsk Sea sandbar, Saroma town, Kitami and Abashiri (regional access)
- •Note: calm lake water usually reflects calm conditions along the open Okhotsk coast as well
