Fischland Coast

The Fischland coast lies between Rostock and Stralsund, where narrow strips of land separate the open Baltic from shallow lagoons. The shore has been shaped both by shifting sand and by human rivalry: in the fourteenth century the Permin and Loop channels were closed amid competition between neighbouring towns. Fishing and seafaring sustained the coastal communities, and by the seventeenth century farmers were also carrying agricultural goods across the lagoons and the Baltic in their vessels.