Laguna Catemaco ( es, Laguna de Catemaco) is a
freshwater
Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include ...
lake
A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...
located at the center of the
Sierra de Los Tuxtlas in south central
Veracruz
Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...
near the city of
Catemaco
Catemaco () is a city in Catemaco Municipality located in the south of the Mexican state of Veracruz. The city is located on Lake Catemaco, with the municipality stretching north to the Gulf of Mexico. Catemaco is a tourist destination, with its m ...
, in east central
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
.
Name
The word
lagoon
A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') a ...
in English, and ''laguna'' in Spanish, generally describes a body of shallow
brackish water, usually next to the sea. Thus despite the name, Laguna de Catemaco is not a lagoon, but an actual fresh water lake. Common usage in Mexico is ''Laguna de Catemaco'', though scientific articles tend to use the correct and less ambiguous name of ''Lake Catemaco'' in English, and ''Lago Catemaco'' in Spanish.
Hydrology
Laguna Catemaco was formed millennia ago, when lava flow from
San Martin Tuxtla
The isolated San Martin Tuxtla volcano is a shield volcano which rises above the Gulf of Mexico. It has had eruptions in historical times. It occurs in the Tuxtla volcanic field in Veracruz, Mexico. Lavas from San Martin vary between basanite and ...
volcano blocked its current northern end, and stands now at 340 m (1,115 ft) above sea level. It is shallow, averaging 7.6 m (25 ft), with a maximum depth of 22 meters located in the channel between
Isla Agaltepec and the city of
Catemaco
Catemaco () is a city in Catemaco Municipality located in the south of the Mexican state of Veracruz. The city is located on Lake Catemaco, with the municipality stretching north to the Gulf of Mexico. Catemaco is a tourist destination, with its m ...
. The circulation pattern is clockwise. The laguna drains via the
Rio Grande de Catemaco and its water level is controlled by several dams which replaced historic waterfalls. The change in water level is more than can be explained by evaporation and outflow. Apparently the laguna sits upon fissures permitting water to percolate down.
The Rio Grande de Catemaco is a tributary of the
Papaloapan River, via the
San Juan River.
Eyipantla Falls (''Salto de Eyipanlta'') is a 45-meter high waterfall on the Rio Grande, located 11 kilometers downstream from the lake.
The lake is polymictic (water turns over more than twice a year), well oxygenated, and contains excessive nutrients (
eutrophic) because of fertilizer runoff from the neighboring farms and nurseries. Because of the excessive nutrients, Laguna Catemaco is one of the more productive lakes in Mexico, up to 1,800 tons annually. Large netting is prohibited to assure the livelihood of more than a thousand registered fishermen. A perch-like fish called ''
Oreochromis aureus
The blue tilapia (''Oreochromis aureus'') is a species of tilapia, a fish in the family Cichlidae. Native to Northern and Western Africa, and the Middle East, through introductions it is now also established elsewhere, including parts of the U ...
'' was introduced from Africa, while a sardine like
Topote, and the snail
Tegogolo are the most common catches.
Ecology
According to Miller and Conner (1997) there are 14 species of fish in Lake Catemaco. Two species, ''
Micropterus salmoides
The largemouth bass (''Micropterus salmoides'') is a carnivorous freshwater gamefish in the Centrarchidae (Centrarchidae, sunfish) family (biology), family, a species of black bass native to the eastern and central United States, southeastern ...
'' Lacepède and ''Oreochromis aureus'' Steindachner have been introduced into the lake, and another two species, ''
Vieja fenestrata
''Vieja'' is a genus of cichlid fish from Central America and Mexico. The majority of the species are freshwater fish found in stagnant or slow-moving waters of southern Mexico to El Salvador, but ''V. maculicauda'', which also occurs in brack ...
'' Günther and ''
Ophisternon aenigmaticum
''Ophisternon'' is a genus of swamp eels found in fresh and brackish waters in South and Southeast Asia, New Guinea, Australia, Middle America and West Africa. Two species are blind cave-dwellers.Romero, A., editor (2001). ''The Biology of Hyp ...
'' Rosen & Greenwood, are widespread throughout eastern Mexico and Central America. Of the remaining 10 species, five are endemic to the lake and five may represent undescribed species endemic to the lake (Miller and Conner 1997, Meyer and Schartl 2003).
Endemic species include the Catemaco characin (''
Bramocharax caballeroi
''Astyanax'' is a genus of freshwater fish in the family Characidae of the order Characiformes. Some of these fish, like many of their relatives, are kept as aquarium pets and known collectively as tetras. With around 150 described species an ...
''), ''
Heterandria tuxtlaensis
''Heterandria'' is a genus of livebearing fishes within the family Poeciliidae. Most species occur in Guatemala and its surroundings, particularly Mexico, but the midget livebearer ('' H. formosa'') comes from the southeastern United State ...
'', Catemaco molly (''
Poecilia catemaconis
''Poecilia'' is a genus of fishes in the family Poeciliidae of the order Cyprinodontiformes. These livebearers are native to fresh, brackish and salt water in the Americas, and some species in the genus are euryhaline. A few have adapted to livi ...
''), Catemaco livebearer (''
Poeciliopsis catemaco
''Poeciliopsis'' is a genus of poeciliid fishes that primarily are native to Mexico and Central America. The only exceptions are ''P. turrubarensis'' where the range extends into Colombia, and ''P. occidentalis'' where the range extends into Ari ...
''), and ''
Xiphophorus milleri
''Xiphophorus milleri'', the Catemaco platyfish, is a poeciliid fish endemic to Mexico's Lake Catemaco and its tributaries. As it has traits of both swordtails and platies, its discovery confirmed that these two groups should be consolidated into ...
''. Non-endemic native fish species include ''
Pseudoxiphophorus bimaculatus
''Pseudoxiphophorus'' is a genus of fish from the family Poeciliidae. The species in the genus were formerly considered to be in the genus ''Heterandria'' but workers found that most of the species were not closely related to the type species of ...
'' and ''
Xiphophorus hellerii
''Xiphophorus'' is a genus of euryhaline and freshwater fishes in the family Poeciliidae of order Cyprinodontiformes, native to Mexico and northern Central America. The many ''Xiphophorus'' species are all known as platyfish (or platies) and ...
''.
Biologically, Eyipantla Falls effectively isolates the rest of the Papaloapan basin from the lake.
[ The high rate of endemicity suggests that Lake Catemaco has been biogeographically isolated for some time, possibly since its origin up to 2 million years ago.
]
Fishery
Because of the excessive nutrients, Laguna Catemaco is one of the more productive lakes in Mexico, up to 1,800 tons annually. Large netting is prohibited to assure the livelihood of more than a thousand registered fishermen. Blue tilapia (''Oreochromis aureus
The blue tilapia (''Oreochromis aureus'') is a species of tilapia, a fish in the family Cichlidae. Native to Northern and Western Africa, and the Middle East, through introductions it is now also established elsewhere, including parts of the U ...
''), a perch-like fish, was introduced from Africa, while a sardine-like Topote, and the snail Tegogolo are the most common catches.
Geology
Laguna Catemaco has a surface area of , is formed like an elliptical parabola and is almost square with maximum width and axis of a little more than , (10,250 m width and a WSW-ENE axis of 12,320 m). It contains of water. The laguna is Mexico's eighteenth in size of water bodies, seventh in size of lakes and lagunas, third in size of lakes.
Prevailing climate is hot and humid with average temperature of 23.4 °C (75 °F). Rainfall varies seasonally with averages of recorded at Catemaco
Catemaco () is a city in Catemaco Municipality located in the south of the Mexican state of Veracruz. The city is located on Lake Catemaco, with the municipality stretching north to the Gulf of Mexico. Catemaco is a tourist destination, with its m ...
and at Coyame
Coyame (formally: Santiago de Coyame) is a town in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. It serves as the municipal seat of Coyame del Sotol Municipality
Coyame del Sotol is one of the 67 municipalities of Chihuahua, in northern Mexico. The municip ...
. Winds from the Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...
enter the Catemaco watershed through an opening in the surrounding mountains located to the north of the town of Coyame, and cross the lake in a NE-SW direction, blowing strongly over the lake throughout the year. From February to October, northeast winds are dominant. Colder and faster northern winds blow from November to January.
The tropical rainforest
Tropical rainforests are rainforests that occur in areas of tropical rainforest climate in which there is no dry season – all months have an average precipitation of at least 60 mm – and may also be referred to as ''lowland equatori ...
that once covered all the watershed of the lake has been severely decimated in the last few decades. Consequently, sedimentation has greatly increased, affecting the clarity of its waters and if left uncontrolled will possibly fill in the lake in the far future.
The shoreline is irregular, with remnants of several volcanic cones and its perimeter is about and would be an ideal venue for 50 km sporting events, if circumnavigation were possible. At present a gap in the lake shore road at Tepeyaga peninsula prohibits this.
There are several volcanic islands within the lake. Several of these islands are stocked with native and imported monkeys as a University of Veracruz
Universidad Veracruzana (Spanish for ''University of Veracruz'') is a public autonomous university located in the Mexican state of Veracruz. Established in 1944, the university is one of the most important in the southeast region of México. It ...
research project. This has led to more than 70 small boats scurrying tourists from Catemaco
Catemaco () is a city in Catemaco Municipality located in the south of the Mexican state of Veracruz. The city is located on Lake Catemaco, with the municipality stretching north to the Gulf of Mexico. Catemaco is a tourist destination, with its m ...
city across the lake to view the free ranging monkeys. The lake has been the backdrop for movies, including Sean Connery
Sir Sean Connery (born Thomas Connery; 25 August 1930 – 31 October 2020) was a Scottish actor. He was the first actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond on film, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983. Origina ...
's Medicine Man.
References
External links
Laguna Catemaco Guide
{{DEFAULTSORT:Catemaco, Laguna
Veracruz
Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...
Lakes of Mexico
Landforms of Veracruz
Los Tuxtlas
Lava dammed lakes
Papaloapan River