A vessel towing the floating island to the centre of the Sĺňava reservoir near Piešťany, west Slovakia. (source: Slovak Water Management Company)
With dimensions of 15 by 20 metres, the island is not large. It does not rise from the ground, but floats on water.
In the past, the island was tied to a pier. Then a ship pulled it to the middle of Sĺňava, a water reservoir near Piešťany, west Slovakia. Finally, the island was detached from the ship and divers anchored it to the bottom of the reservoir.
However, the island will not serve vacationers or other people, but birds that almost became extinct because of humans.
A chick of the common tern. (source: Andrej Chudý )
Saving birds from extinction
"The floating bird island is intended for aquatic birds that have lived and nested on the river Váh for thousands of years. Some species, such as the little tern, have already become extinct here, others are on the verge of extinction, such as the common tern. Shorebirds such as the little ringed plover and common sandpiper have also significantly decreased. Islands like this one aim to save them," says ornithologist Jozef Ridzoň, from the Slovak Ornithological Society/Birdlife Slovakia.
Explaining why the floating island is bare, he says, "The island imitates the original gravel islands that were once common on the Váh. For example, the common tern needs such places without vegetation, otherwise the bird will not nest. Even its eggs are the colour of gravel in order to be inconspicuous."
After the regulation of the river Váh in the last century, many natural habitats disappeared, with gravel islands either completely destroyed or overgrown.
Until then, the river meandered a lot, changed its channel, branched out, the banks of its arms overgrown with reed. There were islands, wetlands and alluvial forests. Colourful life was a part of it all.
A historical map from 1950 shows many islands in the river section where the Sĺňava was built. Those belong to the past.
