Breitling zwischen Poel und dem Festland

The Breitling is a narrow

strait A strait is an oceanic landform connecting two seas or two other large areas of water. The surface water generally flows at the same elevation on both sides and through the strait in either direction. Most commonly, it is a narrow ocean channe ...

in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

between the island of

Poel Poel () or Poel Island (german: Insel Poel), is an island in the Baltic Sea. It forms the natural northern and eastern boundaries of the Bay of Wismar on the German coast. The northern coast of the island is also on the south side of the large gu ...

and the mainland in the northeast of the district of

Nordwestmecklenburg Nordwestmecklenburg (''Northwestern Mecklenburg'') is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the north-western part of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is situated on the coast of the Baltic Sea and borders on Schleswig-Holstein to the west. Neighboring dis ...

. It links the sheltered part of the

Bay of Wismar The Bay of WismarKohl, Horst; Marcinek, Joachim and Nitz, Bernhard (1986). ''Geography of the German Democratic Republic'', VEB Hermann Haack, Gotha, p. 47. . or more commonly Wismar Bay or ''Wismarbucht'' is a well sheltered multi-sectioned bay ...

, beginning south of Poeldamm, with the

Salzhaff The Salzhaff is a part of the Bay of Wismar that is almost cut off from the Baltic Sea by the spit of the Wustrow and ''Boiensdorfer Werder'' peninsulas. It is located south of the town of Rerik in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and southwest of the sea ...

(into which estuaries of the Zaufe and Gollwitz empty). The Breitling is a very shallow body of water, mostly under one metre in depth. Large parts can even become exposed at low water, whereas at high water it can cover the low-lying causeway known as the Poeldamm. In the south the road link runs along a

causeway A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet Tra ...

(the Poeldamm) over a low peninsula to Poel over the Breitling. The waterbody is about five kilometres long and no more than one kilometre wide.

Flora and fauna

The landscape alternates between short stretches of steep shoreline on the mainland side, on the southern shores of the small islands of ''Baumwerder'' and

Ahrendsberg Ahrendsberg is an uninhabited island, in area, near the island of Poel in the Breitling, a strait off the Bay of Wismar on the Baltic coast of Germany. The island, which is roughly long and up to wide, is dominated by salt meadows with mars ...

and very shallow areas subject to flooding. This is indicated by salt grasslands with

alluvial Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...

islands and shores, interspersed with

creek A creek in North America and elsewhere, such as Australia, is a stream that is usually smaller than a river. In the British Isles it is a small tidal inlet. Creek may also refer to: People * Creek people, also known as Muscogee, Native Americans ...

s. The higher areas are usually very dry and are characterised by arid vegetation such as poor, dry grassland with thorn bushes.

External links

Bay of Wismar conservation
{{Coord, 53, 59, , N, 11, 29, , E, type:waterbody_region:DE-MV, display=title Bay of Wismar Straits of the Baltic Sea