Каттегаттың ең ірі аралы – Лэсё

Largest island in Kattegat Bay

Læsø ("Isle of Hlér") is the largest island in the North Sea bay of Kattegat, and is located off the northeast coast of the Jutland Peninsula, the Danish mainland. Læsø is also the name of the municipality (Danish, kommune) on that island. The island is a location mentioned in several instances in Old Norse sources detailing Norse mythology. In a 2010 survey, readers of the Danish newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad voted Læsø as Denmark's second most wonderful island, behind only Fur (island).

Læsø's municipal council consists of 9 members, elected every four years. Below are the municipal councils elected since the Municipal Reform of 2007. Election Party Totalseats Turnout Electedmayor20052223978.5%Olav Juul Gaarn Larsen (V)20092114281.8%Thomas W. Olsen (L)201321121283.7%Tobias B. Johansen (L)2017122482.3%Karsten Nielsen (O)202112021367.8%Tobias Birch Johansen (V)Data from Kmdvalg. dk 2005, 2009, 2013, 2017. DR: 2021

Læsø has an outstanding botanical interest. The nature types on and around Læsø includes open water, extensive mudflats, sand banks, heathland, islets and areas of arable land. It houses Denmark's largest tidal saltmarsh outside the Wadden Sea but the decline in grazing animals has led to a gradual vegetational succession. Invasive species are colonizing the site, especially Japanese Rose, and scrub clearance has been implemented to re establish the former pastures open heathland. Seals like the Harbor seal are breeding around Læsø and the whole area is an internationally important area for wintering, molting and staging waterbirds. Therefore, a Ramsar protection was put into force in 1977 (number 149) and today it encompass 66,548 ha.

Together with Anholt, Læsø belongs to the Danish "desert belt"; during the summer months there is so little rain that streams and ponds partly dry up. In the Middle Ages, the island was known for its salt industry. The ground water can reach over 15 percent salt, and this was naturally concentrated in flat salt meadows during the hot dry summers. The final concentration, carried out in hundreds of salt kilns, consumed large amounts of wood. Eventually the island became deforested, sandstorms buried villages, and salt extraction was banned. Since the end of the 1980s it has been resumed on a small scale as an archaeological experiment and a tourist attraction. Læsø is home to unique styles of Danish traditional music. Most of it is not played any more but has been preserved through intense documentation and research in the 1980s and 1990s. The HVDC powerline Kontiskan crosses Læsø as overhead line. On Læsø, there is also a 160 metres tall radio relay mast. In 1993 a conservation area was established for the A. m. mellifera nicknamed the Brown Bee of Læsø, where it became illegal according to Danish Law to keep and import any other type of bee other than Apis mellifera mellifera, this was met with protests and a legal battle lasting eight years from other beekeepers of A. m. ligustica, A. m. carnica and Buckfast bees as they did not "want to become a custodian of poor bees", they also stated that A. m. mellifera was "unproductive" and "not worthy of protection". They lost their case in 2001, and negotiations between A. m. mellifera beekeepers and non A. m. mellifera beekeepers were concluded in 2004, splitting the island in two between them, ending a "history of sabotage of bees" on the island. The A. m. mellifera supporters claimed that they had "introduced apartheid on Læsø for the bees".