The Nemunas River is navigable and used for commercial shipping between Kaunas and the Baltic seaport of Klaipeda, reached through a channel in the Kuronian Bay. East of Kaunas, about 204km inland from Klaipeda, a hydropower dam with no lock prevents the development of inland shipping upstream. The river would otherwise be potentially navigable a further 200km through to Grodno in Belarus. The Nemunas is accessible from the Polish waterway network through the Wislanian Bay, which becomes the Kaliningrad Bay in the Russian Federation, leading to the Pregel. Canals link the Pregel to the Kuronian Bay (see under Russia). The channel is marked by navigation markers between Kaunas and the mouth of the river and by navigation lights on the Kuronian Bay. There is little barge traffic on the river, mainly timber and construction materials…