Why is Tonle Sap Lake important?

The Tonle Sap and the inland waters system in Cambodia support some 500,000 tons of fish each year, and the flooded forests purify water and buffer communities from storms — an increasingly important benefit as climate change makes extreme weather more frequent. …

How deep is the Tonle Sap Lake?

10 m
Tonlé Sap/Max depth

Is Tonle Sap a natural lake?

Then huge quantities of water flow back from Tonle Sap Lake to the Mekong River, and the surface of the lake shrinks to 2,500 sq. km, its maximum depth amounts to 2 – 3 m only. Due to this unique natural phenomenum Tonle Sap Lake is very rich in freshwater fish.

How big is the Tonle Sap?

2,700 km²
Tonlé Sap/Area

How is the Tonle Sap lake related to the Mekong River?

From a geological perspective, the Tonlé Sap Lake and Tonlé Sap River are a current freeze-frame representation of the slowly but continuously shifting lower Mekong basin. Annual fluctuation of the Mekong’s water volume, supplemented by the Asian monsoon regime, causes a unique flow reversal of the Tonlé Sap River.

How big is the Tonle Sap Great Lake?

The depth of the Tonle Sap Great Lake varies from 0.5 metres in the dry season to a maximum of nine metres during the wet season. The lake’s ecosystem is highly productive, with this productivity in large part dependent on a ‘flood pulse’ from the Mekong, which replenishes nutrients in the lake and enriches the floodplain.

Where does the water from Tonle Sap come from?

The lake is drained during the dry season by the Sab River (Tônlé Sab) across the Véal Pôc plain southeastward to the Mekong River. Called by the French Grand Lac (“Great Lake”), the lake is fed by numerous erratic tributaries and also by the Srêng and Sên rivers, which are perennial northern tributaries.

What kind of fishing does Tonle Sap do?

Tonle Sap. At low water it is little more than a reed-infested swamp, with channels for fishing craft. The lake, the largest freshwater body in Southeast Asia, supports a large carp-breeding and carp-harvesting industry, with numerous floating fishing villages inhabited largely by ethnic Vietnamese.