The largest freshwater lake in the Old Empires, the Akanamere is well stocked with fish, and its shores contain some of the most fertile farmland in the Realms, with bountiful crops. However, the shores also are dotted with mercenary bands and bandits that extort a living from these farmsteads and plantations. There are a number of sea goblins residing in the lake proper, and at least one pirate ship that isn’t above robbing boats of their foodstuffs on their way to other markets. The lake is navigable by small and medium sized ships to and from the Bay of Chessenta via the River Akax.
The Akanamere supports local fisheries in crabs, eels, and the druth or "brown flatfish" (which resembles nothing so much as the detached sole of a leather moccasin or slipper). The eels and flatfish are sun-dried for transport and sale; when soaked in water or shredded into a soup or stew they readily reconstitute, the eels having an odd "nutty" taste and the flatfish having a hearty "smoked bacon"-like flavour but a leathery, hard-chewing consistency.
The crabs are often called "stone crabs" for their usual human-palm size, mottled gray color, and rounded shape, are VERY tasty steamed, boiled, fried, or fire-seared (boiled treats them the worst, and fried the best). They are usually tossed alive into layers of salt in barrels for transport elsewhere, which kills them and preserves them; when bought out of the barrel, soak them for a day to get rid of the salt, or boil them very briefly with kurlath leaves (the broad green leaves of a wild, shady-loving ground plant otherwise useful only for wrapping things in; kurlath sap "cuts" salts of all sorts) to drive out the salt, and then prepare the crabs however you prefer. Stone crabs, when eaten raw, have a taste somewhat like real-world tinned smoked oysters [though they're not at all oily]. They readily "awaken" when cooked with herbs and spices, becoming stronger and more crab-like