10 FUN FACTS ABOUT LAKE NICARAGUA
Three names
The lake has three different names: Lake Nicaragua, Cocibolca and Mar Dulce. Cocibolca and Mar Dulce both mean “sweet sea”, the name given to the lake by last name given to the lake by Spanish during colonial time.
The largest lake
Lake Nicaragua lake is the largest fresh water lake in Nicaragua and in Central America. It is about the same size as Puerto Rico.
Islands and islets
There are more than 300 small islands and islets in the lake. All the islets and islands formed as a result of volcanic activity in the area. Majority of them located near the city of Granada, so the got a common name “Granada islets” You can buy you own small island in Nicaragua lake for 90-100 K.
Largest island
Omepete is the largest Island on Nicaragua Lake. The island is more than 100 square miles with total population more than 30 thousand people.
2 active volcanoes
There are total of 23 volcanos in Nicaragua, 19 of which are active. 2 active volcanoes located on Omepete island.
Sharks in Lake Nicaragua.
Lake Nicaragua is only lake in the world that has sharks.The sharks in lake Nicaragua called “bull Shark”. Those are the same kind of sharks found the Caribbean sea. The sharks get to the lake via San Juan river from Caribbean see. They completely adopted to the fresh water in lake Nicaragua. The sharks can grow up to 40 feet long.
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Nicaragua Lake fish
In addition to sharks, there are 35 other fish species found in Lake Nicaragua including gaspar, sawfish and tarpons. Several fresh water fish farms grow and export tilapia
Lake Nicaragua commercial use in the past
Lake Nicaragua along with San Juan rive was used to by commercial boats as a main transportation rote between Atlantic and Pacific oceans. This route was used by American businessmen Cornelius Vanderbilt to transport people between New Orleans and California during California gold rush times
Nicaraguan Canal
Starting from 16th century there were several attempts to build a canal between Pacific and Atlantic ocean in Nicaragua. The first idea came from Spanish but due to inability to have a proper research and collect funding, it was abandoned. Several proposals outline various routes for the canal. All of those routes use lake Nicaragua as a major part of the canal. One of the later proposal for the Nicaragua Canal was submitted by Vanderbilt and supported by Nicaraguan governments.
After Panama Canal construction the idea of Nicaraguan Canal was abandoned for a while, but came back to live at the end of the last century. There was a proposal submitted by Korean company and later in 2019 another proposal supposed to be funded by Chinese company. Nicaraguans initially widely supported the the canal proposal . Later when the potential environmental impact was assessed, the number of canal supporter dropped significantly.
Lake Nicaragua is the 19th largest lake in the world.
