{{Short description|Bay on the Baltic Sea coast of Germany}} thumb|upright=1.15|right|Location of the Saaler Bodden
The '''Saaler Bodden''' forms the southwestern part of the Darss-Zingst Bodden Chain and lies east of the Fischland peninsula about 30 kilometres northeast of Rostock.<ref name="map">''Die General Karte No. 1 - Schwerin-Rostock-Rügen'', 1:200,000 scale, Mairs Geographische Verlag/Falk Verlag, Ostfildern, 2008.</ref> Its average depth is around two metres, which restricts angling and the use of pleasure craft. It is a lagoon-like stretch of water known as a ''bodden'', which is typical of this part of the Baltic coastline. South of the Saaler Bodden is the town of Ribnitz-Damgarten, which is divided into two by the mouth of the 72 kilometre long Recknitz river. This southern part of the ''bodden'' is called the '''Lake Ribnitz''' (''Ribnitzer See'').
Apart from the Recknitz near Damgarten, the other streams that empty into the Ribnitzer See are the ''Klosterbach'' near Ribnitz and ''Körkwitzer Bach'' and ''Fischergraben'' near Körkwitz. A stream called the ''Saaler Bach'' (in its lower reaches known as the ''Ziegelgraben'') discharges into the ''bodden'' near Saal.
To the northeast the Koppelstrom links this ''bodden'' to the next one in the chain, the Bodstedter Bodden. Two former channels to the Baltic Sea, the Permin and the Loop, silted up in the 14th century.
The water of the Saaler Bodden is weakly salty (1-3 permille).
== Gallery == <gallery> File:Saaler Bodden Ribnitz 01.JPG|View over Lake Ribnitz to the Saaler Bodden File:Fischland Luftbild.jpg|Aerial photographs of the Saaler Bodden with Permin in the foreground File:Am Saaler Bodden.JPG|On the Saaler Bodden near Dierhagen </gallery>
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == {{Commons category}} * {{LBMV PPN|253803101}} {{Authority control}}
{{Coord|54|19|N|12|27|E|type:waterbody_source:kolossus-plwiki|display=title}}
Category:Darss-Zingst Bodden Chain