The biggest threats the Baltic Sea faces are eutrophication, pollution from hazardous substances, emissions from and risks posed by maritime traffic and the loss of biodiversity. BSAG focuses on all of these issues.

 

The Baltic Sea is extremely vulnerable due to its special characteristics; it has a low salinity level -ranging between 0.1% and 2.0%, the average of the world oceans being 3.5%- the reason being that the Baltic Sea is an inlet which seldom exchanges water with the Atlantic through the narrow Danish Straits. The water is cold and the sea is also very shallow -the average depth being 59 metres, whereas the average depth in the Mediterranean is 1500 metres.

There are 90 million people living around the Baltic Sea and it is inevitable that we burden the sea’s ecosystem. The proportion of people per cubic metre of seawater would equate to 14 billion people living around the Mediterranean, double the entire global population!

 

Simply put, there is very little water in the Baltic Sea; what water there is can withstand very little mistreatment.