Lake Ikeda

Lake Ikeda
Lake Ikeda with Mount Kaimon
Location	Kyūshū island
Coordinates	31°14′N 130°34′E / 31.233°N 130.567°E / 31.233; 130.567Coordinates: 31°14′N 130°34′E / 31.233°N 130.567°E / 31.233; 130.567
Type	caldera lake
Catchment area	41 km2 (16 sq mi)
Basin countries	Japan
Surface area	11 km2 (4.2 sq mi)
Average depth	135 m (443 ft)
Max. depth	233 m (764 ft)
Water volume	1.47 km3 (1,190,000 acre·ft)
Residence time	1.7 years
Shore length1	15.1 km (9.4 mi)
1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure.

Lake Ikeda (池田湖, Ikeda-ko^?) is a caldera lake located 40 km south of Kagoshima city; Kyūshū island, Japan. It is perhaps best known to tourists as the location of the purported sightings of a monster named Issie, and as the largest lake on Kyūshū island with a surface area of 11 km² and a shoreline length of 15 km.

The development of the areas surrounding Lake Ikeda has caused the quality of the water to decline since 1955. Other causes include an irrigation project, developed for agricultural field and households in the area, which was initiated in 1965, for it the courses of three nearby rivers were diverted into the lake. The irrigation system has been in operation since 1982, resulting in a considerable improvement of the water quality although since the 1950s the transparency of the lake, though still ranked No. 7 in the world, has decreased from 26.8 m to approximately 5m.

Lake Ikeda is known to harbour large eels, some six feet in length. In 1998, a benthological survey was conducted in the lake, which found that there were no zoobenthos, although two tubificid oligochaetes and a chironomid were found. The lake was already considered oligotrophic until the 1940s, but one theory for the further drop in underwater life is that the existing life in Lake Ikeda has been affected by Global Warming.

Lake Ikeda is important in the local Shinto folklore of the surrounding regions. Local religious tradition originally held the lake as the origin of humankind.