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Lake Sentani is a tropical, shallow, and at low-altitude open lake located at the northeast extremity of the Jayapura Regency in the Indonesian province of Papua, about from the provincial capital, Jayapura. It is located just to the south of the town of Sentani.
The lake, which is considered by the local population as the home of the , is part of the Cyclops Strict Nature Reserve and contains several endemic species of fish.
Lake Sentani receives its water primarily from direct precipitation with an average annual rainfall around the lake of about , and by mountain streams. The average evaporation on the lake is about with seasonal variation in inflow. The lake outflows into the Jafuri River and to the Pacific Ocean near the Papua New Guinea border.
It may be small, but it harbors 34 species of fish, of which 13 are resident natives, 8 anadromous and 13 introduced. Besides having its own species of rainbowfish (Sentani rainbowfish and red rainbowfish), Lake Sentani is also home to two other fish species that cannot be found anywhere else, the Sentani gudgeon and Sentani goby.Hoese, D.F., and G.R. Allen (2015). Descriptions of three new species of Glossogobius (Teleostei: Gobiidae) from New Guinea. Zootaxa 3986(2): 201-16. Sawfish up to were well known in the lake until the 1970s and are a common motif in traditional Sentani art, but appear to have been Local extinction. Fish are extensively raised in ponds and cages around the perimeter of the lake and the introduction of species (particularly Common carp and tilapia) has been both accidental and intentional.
In this part of the world and at this latitude rainbows are visible only after a hard rain, but in Lake Sentani they are visible all the time, at least, by seeing the Sentani rainbowfish that, along with many others, are unique to this lake.
Much of the mountainous terrain between the north shore of the lake and the ocean falls within the Cyclops Strict Nature Reserve. The future management of the Nature reserve and buffer zone, and the environmental quality of the lake, are strongly interdependent. Recently a major reforestation project of grassland on the slopes surrounding the lake has been initiated, with the support of forest companies operating in Papua. This ecoregion is located within one of the most populated areas of New Guinea, but it is threatened by overfishing, the introduction of new species, which could be harmful to the Endemism species in this lake. and aquaculture. A major sustainable development issues for the inhabitants of the lake and surroundings is the existing proposal to build a Hydroelectricity through a dam placed on the Jafuri river. Several feasibility and environmental impact studies have been published, but the cost/benefit consequences of this project have not been released yet.
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