State of the Baltic Sea

? b.€

per year

Good environmental status

Achieving good environmental status in national marine waters by 2040 has been estimated to be worth 5.6 billion euros per year to the people around the Baltic Sea

Reference: HELCOM (stateofthebalticsea.helcom.fi)

Climate savior seagrass

Seagrass meadows in Germany constitute a significant organic carbon stock, storing on average 1,920 g C/m2, three times greater than meadows from other parts of the Baltic Sea, and three-fold richer than adjacent unvegetated sediments.

Reference: Stevenson et al. 2023 (doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2023.1266663)

Seagrass storing

?g

C/m² on average

Age of Baltic Sea:

?

years

A young sea

While most of these oceans are many umpteen million years old, the Baltic Sea is a relatively young sea and has only existed for around 8,000 years.

Reference: Geomar (www.geomar.de/entdecken/artikel/die-entstehung-der-ostsee).

The harbour porpoise

is the only native whale species inhabiting the Baltic Sea. However, the population in the Central Baltic Sea has declined dramatically and now only numbers a few hundred animals. Bycatch and accidental entanglement in fishing gear in particular pose a major threat to the harbor porpoise, but environmental pollution and increasing noise from commercial shipping and other industrial activities are also putting this small cetacean species under increasing stress.

Reference: ASCOBANS (www.ascobans.org/en/species/phocoena-phocoena)

Realms of the Baltic Sea

The average water column of the Baltic Sea is about 53 m deep. This zone is full of marine life, majority of which consists of microscopicalgae or animals almost invisible to a naked eye (they are called phytoplankton andzooplankton). They constitute about half of all the diversity of living organisms inthe Baltic Sea.

Reference: The book of the Sea. The realms of Baltic sea

Average depth of the Baltic sea:

?m

Diversity up to

?x

higher

The swash zone

Those, thinking that the swash zone holds nothing else but sand and somesea sediments, would be surprised to learn, that among particles of sand, where moisture is captured, dwell rich communities of tiny animals, usually smaller than 0.5mm across. They are also known as meiofauna. The diversity of these little organisms might in some cases be up to 25 times higher than that of macroscopic organisms seen with a naked eye (The book of the Sea. The realms of Baltic sea).

Reference: The book of the Sea. The realms of Baltic sea

Baltic Sea fish

There are around 100 fish species in the Baltic Sea, including freshwater and marine species. Cod, herring and sprat are considered some of the most important species for the ecosystem, the fisheries and food culture in or around the Baltic Sea.

Reference: HELCOM (https://helcom.fi/action-areas/fisheries/basic-facts/)

Around

?

Fish species

Number of macroscopic species:

?

in the Bothnian Bay

Macroscopic species

Only around 300 macroscopic species (i.e. species that we can see with the naked eye) are found in the Bothnian Bay in the northern part of the Baltic Sea, whereas approximately 6 times as many species are found in the most marine area in the south.

Reference: HELCOM (https://helcom.fi/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/BSEP174.pdf)

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