Busse Lagoon

Lake Busse is a lagoon of about forty square kilometres in southern Sakhalin, joined to Aniva bay by a narrow channel, so it is brackish - a mix of fresh river water and tidal seawater that changes with the tide and the season, which produces an unusual community of species from both. It is a protected area for that reason. What draws visitors is the shellfish: the lagoon holds giant Pacific oysters that grow to a considerable size in the warm shallow water, along with scallops, mussels, sea urchins and spider crab, and the standard trip is a boat out to the sandbar where a diver brings up shellfish that are opened and eaten on the spot with lemon and nothing else. Harvesting is licensed and quantities are regulated, since the beds have been overworked before. Water in the lagoon is warm by Sakhalin standards, and the surrounding shore is sand and low forest.

What you actually see

• The brackish mix - fresh and seawater meeting, with species from both.
• The oyster beds - giant Pacific oysters grown large in warm shallow water.
• The sandbar meal - shellfish brought up by divers and eaten on the spot.
• The regulation - licensed harvesting after previous overworking of the beds.

When to go

June to September, when the water is workable and trips run. A day from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.

Honest expectations

Raw shellfish eaten on a boat carries the obvious risk - only go with licensed operators. Harvesting outside licence is illegal and the beds have been damaged before. The access track is rough. Weather closes the lagoon to boats.

Nearby

Korsakov and Aniva bay are north-west; Cape Velikan is on the eastern coast.