1. The Baltic Sea Maarja Toomemäe Oliver Nurk Jarek Elmi

2.  The largest waterbody of low-salinity water  Bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands  About 1,600 km long, an average of 193 km wide, and an average of 55 m deep  The surface area is about 377,000 km² and the volume is about 20,000 km³  8,000 km of coastline Introduction

4.  The water flows from Atlantic ocean to the Baltic Sea through the Danish straits; however, the flow is complex  The outflow from the Baltic Sea is about 1000 km³ per year  The inflow from Kattegat is about 500 km³ per year Water regime

5.  Much lower than that of ocean water (which averages 35‰)  The open surface waters of the central basin have salinity of 6 to 8 ‰  Below 40 to 70 m, the salinity is between 10 and 15 ‰ in the open Baltic Sea Salinity

6.  Near the Danish straits the salinity is close to that of the Kattegat, but still not fully oceanic  Salinity decreases steadily 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. Salinity

7. The salinity of the surface water

8.  One of the most polluted sea  Every litre of water has 10 grams of oil based chemicals  400 tons of waste from oil is dumped into the ocean every year  A lot of pollution from chemical weapons that were created for WWII  The most common toxicants are DDT, PCB, mercury and heavy metals Pollution

9.  Massive algae blooms  Huge danger for sea creatures and birds (herrings without eyes)  Loss of biodeversity  The Helsinki Commission (or HELCOM), works to protect the marine environment of the Baltic Sea from all sources of pollution through intergovernmental co-operation between the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea Consequenses

13. Thank you for your attention!

14.  http://www.baltic.vtt.fi/demo/balful.html http://www.baltic.vtt.fi/demo/balful.html  http://www.annaabi.com/Referaat- L%C3%A4%C3%A4nemere-keskkond-m61303.html http://www.annaabi.com/Referaat- L%C3%A4%C3%A4nemere-keskkond-m61303.html  http://www.helcom.fi/helcom/en_GB/aboutus/ http://www.helcom.fi/helcom/en_GB/aboutus/