Canterbury Low-land Lakes

Lake Ellesmere and Lake Forsyth are Canterbury low-land lakes each only about 2 meters above sea level. Both are cut-off from the sea by shingle banks thrown up by wave action in the Canterbury Bight. Without natural outlets to the sea these lakes spread out across farm land over time. Every few years they are opened to the sea with bulldozers in order to mitigate flooding. These lakes contain brown trout, eels, flounder, mullet, smelt and several species of course fish including rudd, tench and carp. The rivers and streams flowing into Lake Ellesmere contain big brown trout. The flounder species found in Lake Ellesmere are black flounder, yellowbelly flounder, and sand flounder. There are also small quantities of greenback flounder.