#lake Saimaa

[valoale]

🌡️ -26

[aduialel]

A few mementos from my trip to Eastern Finnish spa.

View from the chalet hours after sunrise at around 8 am 👇

Photos were taken 18 and 19 June, 2024

[ahlanzhan]

Don't wanna rain on how cool Lake Balkan is because it sure sounds cool, but I need to defend another exclusively freshwater habiting piniped here - a saimaa ringed seal which only exclusively lives in Saimaa waterways in Finland. There are only about 430 of them in this one lake system and thus also the world. And this is an improvement, they were dying out at one point.

Also the adults look like lichen covered rocks which I find just the coolest. Just going plop by the lakeside.

Do y’all ever think about how absolutely bananas Lake Baikal is? It’s the world’s largest lake by volume. It’s the world’s deepest lake. It’s the world’s oldest lake. It contains nearly a quarter of the planet’s surface freshwater. It’s a rift lake, caused by the earth’s crust literally coming apart at the seams. It would be deeper than the Mariana Trench except the bottom is covered in a sediment layer that is miles deep. There are trains that have sunk to the bottom because Russia tried to build a railroad over the ice. The entire lake surface freezes for half the year. The lake is a focal point of multiple indigenous cultures. The lake has its own species of seal, which is the only exclusively freshwater pinniped in the world. There are unique ice formations formed by convection from the depths of the lake. There are 330 inflowing rivers.

I dunno, Lake Baikal sure is a thing.

[locals-bd]

Lake Saimaa

[jammiedoggo]

Finnish saimaa ringed seal

[nosfeh]

"Destroy all nets" #linocut 23*31cm 2023. edition of 23 50€ print, 100€ framed. + postages #nosfe #nosfeart #norppa #seal #sea #lake #art #printmaking #contemporaryprintmaking #finnishartist #fineartprints #suomi #saimaa (at Somerniemi, Länsi-Suomen Lääni, Finland) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cpx-vhatdSM/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[thingsdavidlikes]

Saimaa by Janne Karvinen

[bagfuloflenses]

The border of ice by Taavi Salakka Via Flickr: Lappeenranta, Finland November 2022 DJI Air 2

[sealsdaily]

Hi my name is Saimaa Ringed Seal Pusa Hispida Saimensis and I have a ring pattern on my back (that’s how I got my name) with light colored rings and an otherwise black back and dark black eyes like the deep sea and a lot of people tell me I look like Ponsuke (AN: if u don’t know who he is get da hell out of here!). I’m not related to the Leopard seal but I wish I was because she’s a major fucking hottie. I’m a carnivore but my teeth are straight and yellow. I have brown fur. I’m also an endangered species, and I go to a lake called Saimaa in Finland where I’m in the third year (I’m three). I’m a generalist feeder (in case you couldn’t tell) and I eat mostly fish. I love Lake Saimaa and I hunt all my fish from there. For example today I was eating some vendace with matching freshwater smelts and a European perch, and rutilus roach. I had shiny brown fur, sharpened claws on both front and back flippers, and thick fat. I was galumphing around the lake. It was snowing and raining so there was no sun, which I was very happy about. A lot of other seals stared at me. I put up my left flipper at them.

[anirobot]

This year, the number of the Saimaa ringed seals has increased by tens of individuals to around 480. Last year, the size of the stock was 436 the Saimaa Ringed Seals.

Metsähallitus' annual stock assessment describes the situation in January, when the stock is at its lowest. The survivors of the litters born in the spring will only be included in next year's assessment.

Thanks to conservation measures, the number of the Saimaa ringed seals has doubled in just over 20 years.

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

Hi folks! UPM, a Finnish forest industry company, is planning on cutting down forest in Rokansaari — an island that spans five square kilometers in Lake Saimaa. Rokansaari has often been described to be a hidden gem and a paradise island, known for its natural sandy beaches, eskers, and lush beautiful pine forests. It’s very popular among travellers, boaters, tourists, all kinds of people really. Some of the forests on the island are even 130 years old.

The areas that UPM is planning on cutting down are labelled as a protected area, but that really only means that you can’t build things there. “Careful cutting” of these forests is fine. Do you know what UPM’s definition of “careful cutting” is, according to their previous work in other parts of Rokansaari?

…Yeah. And now they’re back to cut down the rest of the area they have.

Anyway, Greenpeace has made a petition to urge UPM to not cut down Rokansaari’s forests! They’ve succeeded in telling UPM off before in 2016, when they managed to keep another similar island safe. I hope they’ll be able to do it again, so I’m sharing the petition! I’m not sure if non-Finns can sign it, but if not, sharing it would be enough. We need more people on this case!

[holts-knees]

Special interest infodump time [facilitated by an art challenge I'm taking part in over on my instagram] this episode: The Saimaa Ringed Seal! The Saimaa Ringed seal is a subspecies of ringed seal endemic to Lake Saimaa in Finland. They have evolved separately from other species of glacial ringed seals for nearly 10,000 years after being separated in the forming of Lake Saimaa during post glacial rebound at the end of the last ice age. That prolonged and continued period of isolation has caused them to have broken off into their own, incredibly rare geographically specific and small numbered morphology [other animals to exhibit this include the Devil's Hole Pupfish of death valley]. Due to this nature, while they face endangerment due to the same reasons as many other seals [bycatch mortality, hunting, pollution etc] they also face it purely from a rarity angle, isolated species populations in the sub-1,000s are always going to be incredibly delicate by virture of not having the "padding" of large count numbers on their side.

That said! Conservationists in Finland work closely with the government to do their best to make sure these adorable freshwater seals have the best shot they can at sticking around, and Metsähallitus was very excited to report that this year was a record-high year for Saimaa Ringed Seal pups! Noting that their annual census for 2023 counted 100 pups [the highest count they have ever had! And a HUGE number considering the overall population of the species is estimated around 410 total seals] The organization thinks it's possible the continued increase may be caused by recent net fishing bans in certain parts of the lake allowing more seals to survive to reproductive age, and hope the bans can continue to expand to further parts of the lake as well to increase this encouraging and exciting momentum. Onnea teille pikku hyljit!! 🦭🩵🇫🇮

[maureen2musings]

Lake Saimaa, Finland

teemu.hannes.aho

[cypherdecypher]

Animal of the Day!

Saimaa Ringed Seal (Pusa hispida saimensis)

(Photo from WWF)

Conservation Status- Endangered

Habitat- Finland

Size (Weight/Length)- 90 kg; 145 cm

Diet- Small fish

Cool Facts- The Saimaa ringed seal is one of the most endangered seals in the world with around 400 mature individuals. Only found in Lake Saimaa in Finland, they have been completely separate from any other species of seal for 9,500 years. While they exclusively eat fish, these seals eat almost every species that inhabit the lake. Despite this, the Saimaa ringed seal does not have an impact on the fishing industry of the area. Despite being protected from hunting for almost 70 years, the Saimaa ringed seal is on the brink of extinction. Due to the small size of the lake mixed with multiple bad breeding seasons in a row, certain fishing methods have been banned from Lake Saimaa along with artificial dens being installed on the beaches.

Rating- 14/10 (Check out Norppalive from WWF for some awesome videos and a live feed of these seals.)

[torillatavataan]

A Finland-based pro-Ukrainian group Totuuden Vuoksi has purchased an advertisement space for a memorial for Alexey Navalny in Imatra for a week. They specifically wanted it for the date of Navalny's funeral. The group has previously purchased similar by-the-road advertisement spaces for pro-Ukraine messages that have sometimes been vandalised.

Imatra is a Finnish town near Russia, formerly favoured by Russian tourists shopping in Finland. The town also has a population of Russian immigrants.

The name Totuuden Vuoksi is a pun meaning “for the sake of the truth” or “tide/flood of truth”. Vuoksi is also the name of the river flowing through Imatra from Lake Saimaa to Lake Ladoga.

Flowers and a candle were left at the scene on Friday.

According to an anonymous Totuuden Vuoksi member, the local Russians avoid talking about the war. In his opinion, the local Finns in contrast have less fear of Russia as they can see how the sanctions have affected Russia.

"Fear is Russia's most effective weapon against us. Russia ought to be stripped off of this weapon," he says.

Article by Yle in Finnish