
Map of the Baltic Sea.
The
Baltic Sea is a
brackish inland sea located in
Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N
latitude and from 20°E to 26°E
longitude.
It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland
of Europe, and the Danish
islands. It drains into the Kattegat
by way of
the Øresund
, the
Great
Belt
and the Little Belt
. The Kattegat continues through Skagerrak
into the North Sea
and the Atlantic Ocean
. The Baltic Sea is connected by man-made
waterways to the White
Sea
via the White Sea Canal
, and to the North Sea via the Kiel Canal
. The Baltic Sea might be considered to be
bordered on its northern edge by the Gulf of Bothnia
, on its northeastern edge by the Gulf of
Finland
, and on its eastern edge by the Gulf of Riga
. However, the various gulfs can be
considered to be simply offshoots of the Baltic Sea, and actually
parts of it.
Geophysical data

Baltic Sea in winter
The Baltic
Sea is a brackish inland sea,
allegedly the largest body of brackish water in the world (other
possibilities include the Black Sea
and Hudson
Bay
). The Baltic Sea occupies a basin formed by
glacial erosion during the last few
Ice
Ages.
Dimensions
The Baltic sea is about 1600 km (1000 mi) long, an average of
193 km (120 mi) wide, and an average of 55 m
(180 ft, 30
fathoms) deep. The maximum
depth is 459 m (1506 ft), on the Swedish side of the
center. The surface area is about 377,000 km² (145,522
sq mi) and the volume is about
20,000 km³ (5040
cubic mile).
The periphery amounts to about 8000 km (4968 mi) of
coastline.
Etymology
While
Tacitus called it Mare Suebicum
after the Germanic people of the Suebi, the first to name it also as the Baltic
Sea (Mare Balticum)
was eleventh century German chronicler Adam of Bremen. The origin of the
latter name is speculative. It might be connected to the Germanic
word
belt, a name used for two of the Danish straits,
the Belts, while others claim it to be
derived from
Latin balteus (belt).
However it should be noted that the name of the Belts might be
connected to Danish
bælte, which also means belt.
Furthermore
Adam of Bremen himself
compared the Sea with a belt stating that the Sea is named so
because it stretches through the land as a belt (
Balticus, eo
quod in modum baltei longo tractu per Scithicas regiones tendatur
usque in Greciam). He might also have been influenced by name
of legendary island mentioned in
The Natural History by
Pliny the Elder. Pliny mentions an island
named
Baltia (or
Balcia) with
reference to accounts of
Pytheas and
Xenophon. It is possible that Pliny refers
to island named
Basilia ("kingdom" or "royal") in
On
the Ocean by Pytheas.
Baltia also might be derived
from "belt" and means "near belt of sea (strait)". Meanwhile others
have concluded that the name of the island originates from the
Indo-European root
*bhel meaning
white, fair.
Yet another explanation is that, while derived from the afore
mentioned root, the name of the sea is related to naming for
various forms of water and related substances in several European
languages, that might have been originally associated colors found
in swamps. Another explanation is that the name was related to
swamp and originally meant "enclosed sea, bay" as opposed to open
sea.
In the Middle Ages the sea was known by variety of names, the name
Baltic Sea started to dominate only after 16th century.
Usage of
Baltic and similar terms to denote the region
east from the sea started only in 19th century.
Name in other languages
The Baltic
Sea, in ancient sources known as Mare Suebicum
(also known as Mare Germanicum
), is also known by the equivalents of "East Sea",
"West Sea", or "Baltic Sea" in different languages:
- In Germanic
languages, except English, East
Sea is used: Afrikaans
(Oossee), Danish
(Østersøen), Dutch
(Oostzee), German
(Ostsee), Icelandic and
Faroese (Eystrasalt),
Norwegian (Østersjøen),
and Swedish (Östersjön).
In Old English it was known as
Ostsæ.
- In addition, Finnish, a
Baltic-Finnic
language, has calqued the Swedish
term as Itämeri "East Sea", disregarding the geography
(the sea is west of Finland), though understandably since Finns
were under Swedish rule from Middle Ages until 1809.
- In another Baltic-Finnic language, Estonian, it is called the
West Sea (Läänemeri), with the
correct geography (the sea is west of Estonia).
- Baltic Sea is used in English; in the Baltic languages Latvian (Baltijas jūra) and
Lithuanian (Baltijos
jūra); in Latin (Mare
Balticum) and the Romance
languages French (Mer
Baltique), Italian (Mar
Baltico), Portuguese
(Mar Báltico), Romanian
(Marea Baltică) and Spanish (Mar Báltico); in Greek (Βαλτική Θάλασσα); in the
Slavic languages Polish (Morze Bałtyckie or
Bałtyk), Czech (Baltské
moře), Croatian (Baltičko
more), Bulgarian
(Baltijsko More (Балтийско море)), Kashubian (Bôłt), Ukrainian (Балтійське море
("Baltijs'ke More")) and Russian
(Baltiyskoye Morye (Балтийское море)); and also
in the Hungarian language
(Balti-tenger).
Sea ice
On the long-term average, the Baltic Sea is ice covered for about
45% of its surface area at the maximum annually.
The ice-covered area
during such a typical winter includes the Gulf of
Bothnia
, the Gulf of Finland
, Gulf of
Riga
, Väinameri in the Estonian archipelago, the
Stockholm
archipelago
and the Archipelago Sea
. The remainder of the Baltic itself does not
freeze during a normal winter, with the exception of sheltered bays
and shallow lagoons such as the Curonian Lagoon
. The ice reaches its maximum extent in
February or March; typical ice thickness in the northernmost areas
in the Bothnian
Bay
, the northern basin of the Gulf of Bothnia, is
about 70 cm for landfast sea ice. The thickness
decreases farther south.
Freezing
begins in the northern coast of Gulf of Bothnia typically in middle
of November, reaching the open waters of Bothnian Bay
in early January. The Bothnian Sea
, the basin south of it, freezes on average in late
February. The Gulf of Finland and the Gulf of Riga freeze
typically in late January.
The ice extent depends on whether the winter is mild, moderate or
severe.
Severe winters can lead to ice formation
around Denmark
and southern
Sweden
.
According to William Derham during the severe winters of 1703 and
1708 the ice cover permeated as far as the Danish straits, parts of
the Bay of Bothnia and Gulf of Finland, in addition to coastal
fringes in more southerly locations such as the Gulf of Riga. In
recent years a typical winter produces only ice in the northern and
eastern extremities of the Sea. In 2007 there was almost no ice
formation except for a short period in March.
In spring, the Gulf of Finland and of Bothnia normally thaw during
late April, with some ice ridges persisting until May in the
eastern Gulf of Finland. In the northernmost reaches of the
Bothnian Bay ice usually stays until late May; by early June it is
practically always gone.
During winter,
fast ice, which is attached
to the
shoreline, develops first,
rendering the ports unusable without the services of
icebreakers.
Level ice,
ice sludge,
pancake ice or
rafter
ice form in the more open regions. The gleaming expanse of ice
is similar to the
Arctic, with wind-driven
pack ice and ridges up to 15 m, and was noted by the ancients.
Offshore of the landfast ice the ice remains very dynamic all year,
because of its thickness it is relatively easily moved around by
winds and therefore makes up large ridges and piles up against the
landfast ice and shores.
The ice cover is the main habitat only for a few larger species.
The largest of them are the seals that both feed and breed on the
ice, although the sea ice also harbors several species of algae
that live in the bottom and inside brine pockets in the ice.
Hydrography
The Baltic Sea flows out through the
Danish straits; however, the flow is complex.
A surface
layer of brackish water discharges 940 km³ per year into the
North
Sea
. Due to the difference in
salinity, a sub-surface layer of more saline water
moving in the opposite direction brings in 475 km³ per year.
It mixes very slowly with the upper waters, resulting in a salinity
gradient from top to bottom, with most of the salt water remaining
below 40 to 70 m deep. The general circulation is
counter-clockwise: northwards along its eastern boundary, and south
along the western one (Alhonen 88).
The difference between the outflow and the inflow comes entirely
from fresh
water. More than 250 streams drain
a basin of about 1.6 million km², contributing a volume of
660 km³ per year to the Baltic.
They include the
major rivers of north Europe, such as the Oder,
the Vistula, the Neman
, the
Daugava and the Neva
.
Additional fresh water comes from the difference of
precipitation less evaporation,
which is positive.
An
important source of salty water are infrequent inflows of North Sea
water into the Baltic. Such inflows,
important to the Baltic ecosystem because of the oxygen they
transport into the Baltic deeps, used to happen on average every
four to five years until the 1980s. In recent decades they have
become less frequent. The latest three occurred in 1983, 1993 and
2003 suggesting a new inter-inflow period of about ten years.
The water level is generally far more dependent on the regional
wind situation than on tidal effects. However, tidal currents occur
in narrow passages in the western parts of the Baltic Sea.
The
significant wave height is
generally much lower than that of the North Sea
. Violent and sudden storms often sweep the
surface, due to large transient temperature differences and a long
reach of wind. Seasonal winds also cause small changes in sea
level, of the order of 0.5 m (Alhonen 88).
Salinity
The Baltic Sea's
salinity is much lower
than that of ocean water (which averages 3.5%, or 35
‰), as a result of abundant freshwater
runoff from the surrounding land; indeed, runoff contributes
roughly one-fortieth its total volume per year, as the volume of
the basin is about 21,000 km³ and yearly runoff is about
500 km³. The open surface waters of the central basin have
salinity of 6 to 8 ‰. At the semi-enclosed bays with major
freshwater inflows, such as head of Finnish Gulf with Neva mouth
and head of Bothnian gulf with close mouths of Lule, Tornio and
Kemi, the salinity is considerably lower. Below 40 to 70 m,
the salinity is between 10 and 15 ‰ in the open Baltic Sea,
and more than this near Danish Straits.
The flow of fresh water into the sea from approximately two-hundred
rivers and the introduction of salt from the South builds up a
gradient of salinity in the Baltic Sea. Near the
Danish straits the salinity is close to that
of the Kattegat, but still not fully oceanic, because the saltiest
water that passes the straits is still already mixed with
considerable amounts of outflow water. The salinity steadily
decreases towards North and East.
At the northern part of the Gulf of
Bothnia
the water is no longer salty and many fresh water
species live in the sea. The salinity gradient is paralleled
by a temperature gradient. These two factors limit many species of
animals and plants to a relatively narrow region of Baltic
Sea.
The most
saline water is vertically stratified in the water column to the
north
, creating a
barrier to the exchange of oxygen and
nutrients, and fostering completely separate maritime
environments.
Regional emergence
The land is still emerging
isostatically
from its subsident state, which was caused by the weight of the
last glaciation. The phenomenon is known as
post-glacial rebound. Consequently, the
surface area and the depth of the sea are diminishing. The uplift
is about eight millimetres per year on the Finnish coast of the
northernmost Gulf of Bothnia. In the area, the former seabed is
only gently sloped, leading to large areas of land being reclaimed
in, geologically speaking, relatively short periods (decades and
centuries).
Geographic data
Subdivisions
The
northern part of the Baltic Sea is known as the Gulf of
Bothnia
, of which the northernmost part is the Bay of
Bothnia or Bothnian
Bay
. The more rounded southern basin of the gulf
is called Bothnian
Sea
and immediately to the south of it lies the
Sea of
Åland
. The Gulf of Finland
connects the Baltic Sea with Saint
Petersburg
. The Gulf of Riga
lies between the Latvian
capital city of Riga
and the
Estonian
island of Saaremaa
.
The
Northern Baltic Sea lies between the
Stockholm
area, southwestern Finland and Estonia. The
Western and Eastern Gotland Basins
form the major parts of the Central Baltic Sea or Baltic proper.
The
Bornholm Basin is the area east of
Bornholm
, and the shallower Arkona
Basin extends from Bornholm to the Danish isles of Falster
and Zealand
.
In the
south, the Bay of
Gdańsk
lies east of the Hel peninsula
on the Polish coast and west of Sambia
in Kaliningrad
Oblast
. The Bay of Pomerania
lies north of the islands of Usedom
and
Wolin
, east of Rügen
. Between
Falster and the German coast lie the Bay of Mecklenburg and Bay of
Lübeck
. The westernmost part of the Baltic Sea is
the Bay of
Kiel
. The three Danish
straits, the Great
Belt
, the Little
Belt
and The
Sound
(Ö/Øresund), connect the Baltic Sea with
the Kattegat
bay and Skagerrak
strait in the North Sea
. The confluence of these two seas at Skagen
on the
northern tip of Denmark
is a visual
spectacle visited by many tourists each year.
Land use
The Baltic sea drainage basin is roughly four times the surface
area of the sea itself. About 48% of the region is forested, with
Sweden and Finland containing the majority of the forest,
especially around the Gulfs of Bothnia and Finland.
About 20% of the land is used for agriculture and pasture, mainly
in Poland and around the edge of the Baltic Proper, in Germany,
Denmark and Sweden. About 17% of the basin is unused open land with
another 8% of wetlands. Most of the latter are in the Gulfs of
Bothnia and Finland.
The rest of the land is heavily populated.
Demographics
About 85 million people live in the Baltic drainage basin, 15
million within 10 km of the coast and 29 million within
50 km of the coast. Around 22 million live in population
centers of over 250,000. 90% of these are concentrated in the
10 km band around the coast. Of the nations containing all or
part of the basin, Poland includes 45% of the 85 million, Russia
12%, Sweden 10% and the others (see below) less than 6% each.
Geologic history
The
Baltic Sea somewhat resembles a riverbed, with
two tributaries, the Gulf of Finland
and Gulf of Bothnia
. Geological surveys
show that before the
Pleistocene instead
of the Baltic Sea, there was a wide plain around a big river called
the
Eridanos. Several
glaciation episodes during the
Pleistocene scooped out the river bed into the
sea basin. By the time of the last, or
Eemian Stage (
MIS 5e), the Eemian sea was in
place. Instead of a true sea, the Baltic can even today also be
understood as the common
estuary of all
rivers flowing into it.
From that time the waters underwent a geologic history summarized
under the names listed below. Many of the stages are named after
marine animals (e.g. the
Littorina
mollusk) that are clear markers of changing
water temperatures and salinity.
The
factors that determined the sea’s characteristics were the
submergence or emergence of the region due to the weight of ice and
subsequent isostatic readjustment, and the connecting channels it
found to the North
Sea
-Atlantic
, either through the straits of Denmark
or at what
are now the large lakes of Sweden
, and the
White
Sea
-Arctic
Sea
.
- Eemian Sea, 130,000–115,000 (years
ago)
- Baltic ice lake,
12,600–10,300
- Yoldia Sea, 10,300–9500
- Ancylus Lake, 9,500–8,000
- Mastogloia Sea 8,000–7,500
- Littorina Sea, 7,500–4,000
- Post-littorina Sea 4,000–present
History
At the time of the
Roman Empire, the
Baltic Sea was known as the
Mare Suebicum or
Mare
Sarmaticum.
Tacitus in
his AD 98
Agricola and
Germania described
the Mare Suebicum, named for the
Suebi tribe,
during the spring months, as a
brackish sea when the ice
on the Baltic Sea broke apart and chunks floated about. The Suebi
eventually migrated south west to reside for a while in the
Rhineland area of modern Germany, where their name survives in the
historic region known as
Swabia. The
Sarmatian tribes inhabited Eastern Europe and
southern Russia.
Jordanes called it the
Germanic Sea in his work the
Getica.
Since the
Viking age, the Scandinavians
have called it "the Eastern Lake" (
Austmarr, "Eastern
Sea", appears in the
Heimskringla and
Eystra salt appears in
Sörla þáttr), but
Saxo Grammaticus recorded in
Gesta Danorum an older name
Gandvik,
"-vik" being
Old Norse for "bay", which implies that the
Vikings correctly regarded it as an inlet of the sea. (Another form
of the name, "Grandvik", attested in at least one English
translation of Gesta Danorum, is likely to be a misspelling.)
In addition to
fish the sea also provides
amber, especially from its southern shores.
The bordering countries have traditionally provided
lumber,
wood tar,
flax,
hemp, and
furs. Sweden had from early medieval times also a
flourishing
mining industry, especially on
iron ore and
silver.
Poland
had and
still has extensive salt mines. All this
has provided for rich trading since the Roman times.
In the
early Middle Ages,
Vikings of Scandinavia built their trade empire all
around the Baltic. Later, there were fights for control over the
sea with
Wendish tribes dwelling on the
southern shore.
The Vikings also used the rivers of Russia
for trade routes, finding their way eventually to the Black Sea
and southern Russia. This Viking-dominated
period is also referred to as
Viking
Age.
Lands
next to the sea's eastern shore were among the last in Europe to be
converted into Christianity in the
Northern Crusades: Finland
in the twelfth century by the Swedes, and what are
now Estonia
and Latvia
in the early
thirteenth century by the Danes and the Germans (Livonian Brothers of the
Sword). The Teutonic
Knights gained control over parts of the southern and eastern
shore of the Baltic Sea, where they set up their
monastic state
while fighting the Poles, the
Danes, the Swedes
, the
Russians of ancient Novgorod, and the Lithuanians (the last Europeans to convert to
Christianity).
In the 12th century, there was intensification of
Slavic piracy. Starting in the 11th century,
the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic were settled by
Germans (and to a lesser extent by
Dutch,
Danes and
Scots) in the course of the
Ostsiedlung. The
Polabian Slavs were gradually assimilated by
the Germans.
Denmark
gradually
gained control over most of the Baltic coast, until she lost much
of her possessions after being defeated in the 1227 Battle of Bornhöved.
In the 13th to 17th centuries, the strongest economic force in
Northern Europe became the
Hanseatic
league, which used the Baltic Sea to establish trade routes
between its member cities.
In the sixteenth and early seventeenth
centuries, Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth, Denmark
and Sweden
fought wars
for Dominium Maris Baltici ("Ruling over the Baltic
Sea"). Eventually, it was the
Swedish Empire that virtually encompassed the
Baltic Sea. In Sweden the sea was then referred to as
Mare
Nostrum Balticum ("Our Baltic Sea").
In the
eighteenth century, Russia
and
Prussia became the leading powers over the
sea. The Great
Northern War, ending with Sweden
's defeat,
brought Russia to the eastern coast. Since then, Russia was
a dominating power in the Baltic.
Russia's Peter the Great saw the strategic
importance of the Baltic and decided to found his new capital,
Saint
Petersburg
at the mouth of the Neva
river at the
east end of the Gulf of
Finland
. There was much trading not just within the
Baltic region but also with the North Sea region, especially
eastern England
and the Netherlands
: their fleets needed the Baltic timber, tar, flax
and hemp.
During
the Crimean War, a joint British
and French
fleet
attacked the Russian fortresses by bombarding Sveaborg
, which guards Helsinki
; Kronstadt
, which guards Saint Petersburg; and by destroying
Bomarsund
in the Åland Islands
. After the unification of Germany
in 1871, the whole southern coast became
German. The
First World War was
partly fought in the Baltic Sea.
After 1920 Poland
was
connected to the Baltic Sea by the Polish Corridor and enlarged the port of
Gdynia
in rivalry
with the port of the Free City of Danzig
.
During
the Second World War, Germany
reclaimed all of the southern shore and much of the eastern by
occupying Poland and the
Baltic
states. In 1945, the Baltic Sea became a mass grave for
retreating soldiers and refugees on torpedoed
troop transports.
As of 2004, the
sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff
remains the worst maritime disaster, killing
(very roughly) 9,000 people. In 2005, a Russian group of
scientists found over five thousand airplane wrecks, sunken
warships, and other
material mainly from
the Second World War, lying at the
bottom of the sea.
Since the end of World War II, various nations, including the
Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Germany,
have disposed of chemical weapons in the Baltic Sea, raising
concerns of environmental contamination. Even now fisherman
accidentally retrieve some of these materials: the most recent
available report from the Helsinki Commission notes that four small
scale catches of CW munitions representing approximately 105
kilograms (231 lbs) of material were reported in 2005. This is a
reduction from the 25 incidents representing 1,110 kilograms (2,447
lbs) of material in 2003.
After 1945, the
German
population was expelled from all areas east of the
Oder-Neisse line, making room for Polish
and Russian settlers.
Poland
gained a
vast stretch of
the southern shore, Russia gained another access to the Baltic
with the Kaliningrad
oblast
. The Baltic
states on the eastern shore were occupied by the Soviet Union
, Poland and East
Germany
became communist
states. The sea then was a border between opposing
military blocks: in the case of military conflict, in parallel with
a Soviet offensive towards the Atlantic Ocean
, communist Poland's fleet was prepared to invade
the Danish isles. This border status also impacted trade and
travel, and came to an end only after the collapse of the communist
regimes in Eastern and Central Europe in the late 1980s.
Since May
2004, on the accession of the Baltic
states and Poland
, the Baltic
Sea has been almost entirely surrounded by countries of the
European Union (EU).
The only
remaining non-EU areas are the Russian metropolis of Saint Petersburg and the
Kaliningrad
Oblast
exclave.
Winter storms begin arriving in the region during October.
These
have caused numerous shipwrecks, such as the sinking of the ferry
M/S Estonia en route from
Tallinn
, Estonia, to Stockholm
, Sweden, in 1994, which claimed the lives of
hundreds. Older, wood-based shipwrecks such as the
Vasa
tend
to remain well-preserved, as the Baltic's cold and brackish water
does not suit the shipworm.
Biology
Approximately 100,000 km² of the Baltic's seafloor (a quarter
of its total area) is a variable dead zone. The more saline (and
therefore denser) water remains on the bottom, isolating it from
surface waters and the atmosphere. This leads to decreased oxygen
concentrations within the zone. It is mainly bacteria that grow in
it, digesting organic material and releasing hydrogen sulfide.
Because of this large anaerobic zone, the seafloor ecology differs
from that of the neighbouring Atlantic.
The low
salinity of the Baltic sea has led to the evolution of many
slightly divergent species, such as the Baltic Sea herring, which is a smaller variant of the Atlantic
herring. The
benthic
fauna consists mainly of
Monoporeia affinis, which is
originally a freshwater species. The lack of
tides has affected the marine species as compared with
the Atlantic.
The most common fish species that can be found in the Baltic Sea
are
codfish, herring,
hake,
plaice,
flounder, sea trout, eel and
turbot.
Economy
Construction of the Great Belt
Bridge
in Denmark (completed 1997) and the Oresund
Bridge
-Tunnel (completed 1999), linking Denmark with
Sweden, provided a highway and railroad connection between Sweden
and the Danish mainland (the Jutland Peninsula
. The undersea tunnel of the Oresund
Bridge-Tunnel provides for navigation of large ships into and out
of the Baltic Sea - just as the tunnel sections of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel in
the United
States
allows large ships to enter and exit the seaports
of eastern Virginia
. The Baltic Sea is the main trade route for
export of Russian petroleum. Many of the countries neighboring the
Baltic Sea have been concerned about this, since a major oil leak
in a seagoing tanker would be disastrous for the Baltic -- given
the slow exchange of water. The tourism industry surrounding the
Baltic Sea is naturally concerned about oil pollution.
Much shipbuilding is carried out in the shipyards around the Baltic
Sea.
The
largest shipyards are at Gdańsk
, Gdynia
, and
Szczecin
, Poland; Kiel
, Germany;
Karlskrona
, Sweden; Malmö
, Sweden;
Rauma
, Turku
, and
Helsinki
, Finland; Riga
, Ventspils
, and Liepāja
(Latvia); Klaipėda
(Lithuania); and St. Petersburg, Russia
.
There are
several cargo and passenger ferries that operate on the Baltic Sea,
such as Scandlines, Silja Line, Polferries,
the Viking Line, Tallink
, and Superfast
Ferries.
Tourism around the sea
European Route of Brick Gothic
European Route of Brick
Gothic is a touristic route connecting cities with Brick Gothic
architecture in seven countries along the Baltic Sea: Sweden
, Denmark
, Germany
, Poland
, Lithuania
, Latvia
and Estonia
.
Piers
Resort towns
Examples:
The Helsinki Convention
1974 Convention
For the first time ever, all the sources of pollution around an
entire sea were made subject to a single convention, signed in 1974
by the then seven Baltic coastal states. The 1974 Convention
entered into force on 3 May 1980.
1992 Convention
In the light of political changes and developments in international
environmental and maritime law, a new convention was signed in 1992
by all the states bordering on the Baltic Sea, and the European
Community. After ratification the Convention entered into force on
17 January 2000. The Convention covers the whole of the Baltic Sea
area, including inland waters and the water of the sea itself, as
well as the seabed. Measures are also taken in the whole catchment
area of the Baltic Sea to reduce land-based pollution. The
Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the
Baltic Sea Area, 1992, entered into force on 17 January 2000.
The governing body of the Convention is the Helsinki Commission,
also known as HELCOM, or Baltic Marine Environment Protection
Commission. The present contracting parties are Denmark, Estonia,
the European Community, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania,
Poland, Russia and Sweden.
The ratification instruments were deposited by the European
Community, Germany, Latvia and Sweden in 1994, by Estonia and
Finland in 1995, by Denmark in 1996, by Lithuania in 1997 and by
Poland and Russia in November 1999.
Countries
Countries that border on the sea:
Countries that are in the
drainage
basin but do not border on the sea:
Islands and archipelagoes
Cities
The biggest coastal cities (by population):
- Saint Petersburg
(Russia) 4,700,000 (metropolitan area
6,000,000)
- Stockholm
(Sweden) 798,898 (metropolitan area
1,927,128)
- Riga
(Latvia)
713,000 (metropolitan area 842,000)
- Helsinki
(Finland) 579,016 (metropolitan area
1,303,126)
- Copenhagen
(Denmark) 502,204 (metropolitan area 1,823,109)
(facing the Sound
)
- Gdańsk
(Poland) 462,700 (metropolitan area 1,041,000)
- Szczecin
(Poland) 413,600 (metropolitan area
674,000)
- Tallinn
(Estonia) 401,774
- Kaliningrad
(Russia) 400,000
- Malmö
(Sweden)
259,579 (facing the Sound
)
- Gdynia
(Poland) 255,600 (metropolitan area 1,041,000)
- Kiel
(Germany)
250,000
- Espoo
(Finland) 234,400 (part of Helsinki metropolitan
area)
- Lübeck
(Germany) 216,100
- Rostock
(Germany) 212,700
- Klaipėda
(Lithuania) 194,400
- Turku
(Finland)
175,000
- Oulu
(Finland)
130,000
Important ports (though not big cities):
- Liepāja
(Latvia) 85,000
- Pori
(Finland)
76,000
- Kotka
(Finland) 55,000
- Świnoujście
(Poland) 50,000
- Kołobrzeg
(Poland) 46,000
- Pärnu
(Estonia)
44,568
- Ventspils
(Latvia) 44,000
- Port of Police
(The Seaport on The Oder River) in Police, Poland
(34,319)
- Baltiysk
(Russia) 20,000
- Maardu
(Estonia) 16,570
- Władysławowo
(Poland) 15,000
- Darłowo
(Poland) 14,000
- Mariehamn
(Finland) 11,000
- Hanko
(Finland) 10,000
- Sassnitz
(Germany) (ferry terminal)
See also
References
- Geography of Baltic Sea Area
- Tacitus,
Germania
: Ergo iam dextro Suebici maris litore Aestiorum gentes
adluuntur, quibus ritus habitusque Sueborum, lingua Britannicae
propior.[1] - Upon the right of the Suevian Sea the
AEstyan nations reside, who use the same customs and attire with
the Suevians; their language more resembles that of
Britain.[2]
- Project Runeberg.
- Hartmann Schedel 1493 map[3]
- Sea Ice survey, Space Science and Engineering Centre,
University of Wisconsin, http://www.ssec.wisc.edu
- , Jan Thulin and Andris Andrushaitis, Religion, Science and the
Environment Symposium V on the Baltic Sea (2003).
- Wend -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia
- http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,3102728,00.html
-
http://www.helcom.fi/stc/files/Publications/Proceedings/bsep112.pdf
- Helcom : Welcome
- Fairbridge, Rhodes. The Encyclopedia of Oceanography.
Pentti Alhonen, "Baltic Sea", pp. 87–91. New York: Van Nostrand
Reinhold Company, 1966.
External links