Anzali Lagoon is a coastal liman

Liman (landform)

Liman is a name for a lake, bay, or estuary formed at the mouth of a river where flow is blocked by a bar of sediments. Liman can be maritime or fluvial .The name is used for such features found along the western and northern coast of the Black Sea, as well as along...

, or lagoon

Lagoon

A lagoon is a body of shallow sea water or brackish water separated from the sea by some form of barrier. The EU's habitat directive defines lagoons as "expanses of shallow coastal salt water, of varying salinity or water volume, wholly or partially separated from the sea by sand banks or shingle,...

, in the Caspian Sea

Caspian Sea

The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...

 near Bandar-e Anzali

Bandar-e Anzali

Bandar-e Anzali , also Romanized as Bandar-e Pahlavī, Bandar Pahlavi, and Bandar Pahlevi, or simply as Pahlavī, Pahlevī, and Pehlevi; earlier, Enceli and Enzeli) is a city in and the capital of Bandar-e Anzali County, Gilan Province, Iran...

, in the northern Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

ian province of Gilan

Gilan Province

Gilan Province is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. It lies along the Caspian Sea, just west of the province of Mazandaran, east of the province of Ardabil, north of the provinces of Zanjan and Qazvin....

. The lagoon divides Bandar-e Anzali into two parts, and is home to both the Selke Wildlife Refuge and the Siahkesheem Marsh.

Although the lagoon suffers from pollution, it is known as a good place for bird watching. The lagoon's water ranges from fresh near the tributary streams to brackish near the mouth into the harbor and the sea. Studies indicate that in the 19th and early 20th Centuries that the lagoon had a much higher salinity.

The lagoon has decreased in size since the 1930s to less than a quarter of its former extent. However, in the last ten years water salinity has increased both by the rise of the level of the Caspian Sea which has caused greater interchange of waters, and due to greater salt transport in incoming "fresh" water due to increased upstream irrigation.

The lagoon has been designated a Ramsar site.

Fishery

Prior to 1950 the Anzali Lagoon provided about 70% of the commercial fish taken in Gilan Province, with catches of over 5,000 tons annually. Commercial fishing was done during the spring and autumn spawning

Spawn (biology)

Spawn refers to the eggs and sperm released or deposited, usually into water, by aquatic animals. As a verb, spawn refers to the process of releasing the eggs and sperm, also called spawning...

 cycles when the kutum

Kutum (fish)

The Kutum also known as "Kütüm" in Azerbaijani, "Caspian White Fish", "Caspian Roach", "māhi sefid" ماهی سفید in Persian, "Talaji" in Mazandarani, and "sifid mahyi" in Gileki , is a medium sized fresh water and brackish water fish native to the Caspian Sea...

, pike-perch

Sander (genus)

Sander is a genus of fish in the Percidae family. They are also known as "pike-perch" because of their resemblance to fish in the unrelated Esocidae family....

 and bream, would enter the lagoon from the Caspian. However, a number of factors acted against the continuation of the fishery and by the time commercial fishing ceased in 1960 annual catches were less than 100 tons.

Heavy siltation from increased upstream irrigation had resulted in the shrinkage and shallowing of the lagoon, increased pollution of the source waters and eutrophication

Eutrophication

Eutrophication or more precisely hypertrophication, is the movement of a body of water′s trophic status in the direction of increasing plant biomass, by the addition of artificial or natural substances, such as nitrates and phosphates, through fertilizers or sewage, to an aquatic system...

 due to an increased nutrient load contributed to the destruction of the fishery. More recently the surface of the lagoon has become gradually overgrown with aquatic macrophytes

Macrophyte

A macrophyte is an aquatic plant that grows in or near water and is either emergent, submergent, or floating. In lakes macrophytes provide cover for fish and substrate for aquatic invertebrates, produce oxygen, and act as food for some fish and wildlife....

, primarily the non-native water-fern, Azolla filiculoides

Azolla filiculoides

Azolla filiculoides is a species of Azolla, native to warm temperate and tropical regions of the Americas as well as most of the old world including Asia and Australia....

, and this has caused increased eutrophication, creating large areas of the lagoon where there is insufficient dissolved oxygen for fish to survive.

Geography

Located in an area of 15,000 hectares near the northern port city of Bandar Anzali in Gilan Province, Anzali is one of the few Iranian wetlands which have been registered as an international wetland in the 1975 Ramsar Convention. Wetlands are considered the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems; however, the Anzali Wetland has also been the victim of the authorities neglect, putting it in danger of grave ecological changes.

The use of Anzali Wetland's bank as the city dump and the release of human and industrial waste into the wetland have already put in danger the lives of animal species and at least 78 species of birds living in the area. Besides, some local authorities plan to build a sports field in a peninsula connected to the wetland. This will be the final blow to the wetland, which has so far been prevented only by the serious opposition of environmentalists to the construction of the sports field.

The efforts made in Australia, Canada, the United States and many European countries to protect nature can be considered an epitome of the governments' serious attention to the conservation of natural habitats, which are permanent sources of tourism attraction. Not only strict rules made by governments are needed to protect natural habitats, but there is also the need for conscientious efforts on the part of people and all those who believe the earth is a place for all God's creatures to live.

Tributaries

The following rivers and streams flow into the Anzali Lagoon.

• Pirbazar
• Pasikhan
• Shakhraz
• Gazrudbar
• Massuleh
• Palanghvar
• Abatar
• Khalkai
• Morghak
• Bahambar
• Shaf