Great Central Lake

Water level is regulated (1-1.5 m); Renewal / circulation: 3.7 years; Catchment area: 308 km ²

The Great Central Lake is the second largest freshwater lake on Vancouver Iceland in the Canadian province of British Columbia.

The narrow lake is about 40 km long and has an area of 51 km ². Its maximum depth is 294 m. It was created during the last ice age.

Petroglyphs on the west side of the lake indicate the presence of a former member of today's First Nations. However, they are now under water, as was lifted in the 1950s, the water level by a dam on the Stamp River to generate electricity. Previously was on the lake a large lumber camp, from where the environment has been largely cleared. Operators were Bloedel, Stewart & Welch in Port Alberni, also in 1933 a railway line built to transport the large trees can.

The first non-indigenous residents of the lake included Joe Drinkwater and his wife Della, after which he named the Della Lake and nearly 500 m high Della Falls. He can be reached today only over a nearly 20 km long hiking trail from the Great Central Lake from.

End of the 19th century Japanese fishermen came to the region, but were expropriated during the Second World War and deported in 1942. At this time, lived 58 Japanese lake. Even Chinese and Indians working there.

A Fish Hatchery processed at Robertson Creek trout and salmon. To increase the fish yield, the lake each year from 1970 to 1973 were supplied to over 100 t manure. In order to determine the success, was compared with the yield of the fish adjacent Sproat Lake, no fertilizer was applied. 1974, the experiment was interrupted, then resumed. In 1982 the method after the salmon stocks had increased by leaps and bounds, transferred to 13 other lakes, which were known as breeding grounds for sockeye salmon. Today, the salmon populations have declined.