Construction took eleven years and cost 7.3 million gold marks. The canal is 23 nautical miles (42.6 km) long and 9–12 metres deep. On the lagoon side the canal is shielded from waves and wind by ten artificial dam islands, which also protect its fairway from sand drift. The grand opening of this enormous hydraulic structure took place on 15 November 1901. When completed, the canal was designed for one-way traffic of vessels up to 120 metres long with a draught of up to six metres.
Today, after repeated deepening and widening works, two-way traffic has been organised, and the canal can take vessels up to 200 metres long with a draught of up to eight metres.
On the banks of the canal lie the town of Svetly and the settlement of Vzmorye, home base of the famous fishing collective farm “Za Rodinu” (“For the Motherland”), which has now become a group of companies forming a full-cycle fish processing complex — from catching the fish to making the finished products. The settlement has a company shop where you can buy this enterprise's products.
Modern photo: Mikhail Ogorodnikov.
Translated from Russian with the help of AI (Claude, Anthropic), October 2026.
