51.5708, 23.9750karst lake
Lake Krymne
Кримне
- 5.5 m
- Maximum depth
- 2.9 m
- Average depth
- ≈1.44 km²
- Surface area
- 3.23 million m³
- Water volume
Verified dataset
Key facts
Krymne closes the north-eastern end of the lake cascade and gives rise to the Ryta river. It holds a small island and contrasting shores, from boggy stretches to high sandy and chalk slopes.
Status: Shatsk National Nature Park; the water body from which the Ryta river rises
- Area
- ≈1.44 km²
- Maximum depth
- 5.5 m
- Average depth
- 2.9 m
- Shoreline
- 6.3 km
Water chemistry
calcium bicarbonate
- Total dissolved solids
- 246 mg/L
Ionic composition, mg/dm³
The bicarbonate ion dominates — the soft carbonate water typical of Polesie.
Ichthyofauna
Fish of the lake
Native species
Introduced / acclimatised
Invasive species
Ecosystem
Flora and birds
Red Book flora
Birds
What to know
Lake in detail
- The far north-eastern link of the Shatsk cascade, 2–3 km east of Pisochne and close to the village of Melnyky.
- The Ryta river rises from the lake and for tens of kilometres marks the border between Ukraine and Belarus.
- A southern watercourse connects the lake to Lake Plotychchia.
- A small island sits in the middle of the lake, and the shores contrast sharply: boggy stretches beside high chalk and sandy slopes.
- The official water-management description reports 25 fish species but names only bream, pike, pike-perch, roach, weatherfish, carp and “Canadian catfish”, so profiles exist only for those attested records.
- The name “Canadian catfish” is matched to the brown bullhead Ameiurus nebulosus, naturalised in the Shatsk district, with the caveat that the common name is taxonomically ambiguous.
- Fed by precipitation and inflow; in shallow, overgrown lakes such as Krymne and Moshne, winter ice cover can bring suffocating fish kills.
History
Chronology
- До 1939
Krymne became the final lake in the canal cascade laid out by Polish engineers from Chorne Velyke through Liutsymyr and the small lakes.
- 1983
Shatsk National Nature Park is created, and the lake has been protected within it ever since.
- 1998
The park's first renaturalisation project covered Krymne and the surrounding marshes and peatlands; an overflow structure stabilised the water level.
State and recreation
The lake today
Recreation
Beaches: gentle sandy slopes; quiet, away from heavy development
Popular with anglers; fishing from bank and boat under the rules of Shatsk National Nature Park.
Rank in the group
Each measure counts only the lakes that report it.
Hydrology
Hydrological connections
The Shatsk lakes are not isolated bodies of water but a connected network. Canals cut between the late nineteenth and the mid twentieth century, along with natural channels, redistribute water between the lakes and the rivers.
A southern watercourse links Krymne to the preceding stage of the cascade.
The Ryta begins at the northern end of the lake — a tributary of the Mukhavets in the Western Bug basin.
Geography and access
Places nearby
All places →Language note
Editorial scope
This English profile carries the full narrative, chronology and local traditions. Source titles stay in their original language, and the Ukrainian page remains the reference version.
Read the Ukrainian profile →Sources
Source titles are retained in their original language.
- Основні аспекти морфометрії та гідрохімії Шацьких озер [Key aspects of the morphometry and hydrochemistry of the Shatsk lakes] (2020)
- Кримне (озеро) [Krymne (lake)]
- о. Кримне [Lake Krymne]
- Сучасний стан іхтіофауни Шацького поозер’я [The current state of the fish fauna of the Shatsk lake district] (2021)
- Гідрохімічні дослідження озерних екосистем Шацького НПП: озеро Кримне [Hydrochemical studies of the lake ecosystems of Shatsk National Nature Park: Lake Krymne] (2014)
- Шацькі озера — ВУЕ [Shatsk lakes — Great Ukrainian Encyclopedia]
- Водно-болотні угіддя — на користь людям і природі [Wetlands — for the benefit of people and nature]
Photo: Александр ТопилинCC BY-SA 3.0cropped