Tuzly Lagoons

The Tuzly lagoons are a string of shallow salt and brackish waters lying behind a long sand bar on the Black Sea coast southwest of Odesa, made a national park on 1 January 2010 and a Ramsar site since 1996; the name comes from the Turkish tuzlu, salty. The three main lagoons, Shahany, Alibey and Burnas, and a dozen smaller ones cover some 206 square kilometres behind a sand bar 29 kilometres long. They sit on one of the main migration routes along the western Black Sea, and in spring and autumn the numbers are large: waders, terns, pelicans, flamingos in recent years, and wintering wildfowl. Dolphins are seen offshore and the bar itself is a nesting beach for terns.

The landscape

• The lagoon chain - shallow salt and brackish waters behind the sand bar.
• The migration - very large numbers of waders and waterbirds in spring and autumn.
• The sand bar - a long spit between the lagoons and the open sea.
• The tern colonies - nesting birds on the bar, protected in season.

When to go

April to May and September to October are the migration peaks and the reason to come. Summer is hot and the lagoons shrink. Winter brings wildfowl but the coast is bleak.

Before you go

There are no hides and no visitor infrastructure; this is birdwatching from the shore with a scope. Parts of the bar are closed in the nesting season and the closures are enforced.

Nearby

Akkerman fortress is northeast, and Vylkove is southwest.

Key facts