Lake Lubie – Clear Water, Massive Schools of Roach and Drama on the Bottom

Lake Lubie – Clear Water, Massive Schools of Roach and Drama on the Bottom

Lake Lubie is a clear and vibrant body of waterwhose underwater world can truly enchant you. Rich vegetation, massive schools of roach and numerous modern finds make it a very interesting diving location, though during one of my dives I also witnessed mass fish die-off.

CLEAR LAKE FULL OF LIFE

Lubie is one of the largest lakes in the Drawskie Lake District. It has an area of approximately 1440 hectares, a maximum depth of approximately 46 metres, and the River Drawa flows through the lake.

Underwater, you can see that this is a lake full of life and vegetation. In many places you can observe rich underwater wildlife, and the clear water allows you to get a good look at what is happening on the bottom.

THOUSANDS OF ROACH

One of the most remarkable sights you can see here is massive schools of roach.

These are not individual fish appearing by chance. In some places you can encounter schools numbering thousands of fish. Watching such a number of fish at once makes a tremendous impression underwater.

MASS FISH DIE-OFF

Unfortunately, during one of my dives I also witnessed a completely different scene.

On the bottom there were hundreds of dead fish. It was a mass die-off, and most of the fish I found were roach.

I did not know the cause of this event, though everything pointed to the possibility of oxygen depletion in the water.

The sight of hundreds of dead fish on the lake bottom was truly depressing. Especially since on a daily basis Lubie shows a completely different face – clear water, vegetation and an enormous amount of life.

Net with dead fish collected from the bottom. Handed over to the authorities for disposal. A small fraction of what was there.

BOTTOM FULL OF MODERN FINDS

Lubie is also an interesting place for people who like to search for things that have ended up on the bottom as a result of human activity.

Underwater, you can find many modern objects. These are not only old remnants – some finds come from contemporary times.

It is precisely such elements that make every dive potentially bring something new.

UNDERWATER CLEANUP

In Lake Lubie I also conducted an underwater cleanup, which I organized in cooperation with HAMMER and Drawsko Pomorskie Municipality.

During the action we retrieved from the bottom:

• 21 tires
• 15 bags of garbage
• 3 fishing nets
• other minor waste

In total, we managed to remove approximately 400 kilograms of waste.

This may seem like little compared to the vastness of the entire lake, but each such cleanup means concrete waste that will no longer lie on the bottom.

Garbage retrieved from Lake Lubie. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

A LAKE WITH TWO FACES

Lake Lubie can be enchanting. Clear water, lush vegetation and thousands of roaches create an extraordinary underwater landscape. At the same time, modern waste can be found on the bottom, and the mass fish die-off showed that even such a large and clean water body can have its problems.

For me, Lubie is therefore a place worth not only admiring, but also observing and protecting.

One cleanup allowed us to remove approximately 400 kilograms of waste, but the most important thing is that such places do not end up back underwater.