Lake Maracaibo
Nature

Lake Maracaibo possesses highly oxygenated waters which makes it rich in algae, and in turn fish, making it very biologically diverse. It is home to clams, blue crabs, shrimp and other aquatic products, and is also home to two endangered aquatic mammals, the West Indian manatee and the Amazon river dolphin. About 145 species of fish inhabit the lake, including many endemic species such as the Maracaibo half-hooked catfish (Hypostomus maracaiboensis), the Maracaibo hairy catfish (Trichomycterus maracaiboensis), the Maracaibo Lake Lamont catfish (Lamontichthys maracaibero), Lake Maracaibo tetra (Bryconamericus motatanensis), and Maracaibo wolf anchovies (Lycengraulis limnichthys) living in surface waters.

The lake has been drilled about 14,000 times, and more than 15,000 miles of oil and gas pipelines criss-cross the lake floor, but most of these pipelines are half a century old, with oil leaking from many aging underwater pipes. Before the 1950s, the lake water could still be used directly for domestic use, but then due to the intrusion of tidal salt water caused by the widening of the lake mouth channel, the salinity of the northern lake area increased by about 1,000%, and the south also increased by 300–500%.
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