Polluting Wrecks in the Baltic Sea

The Baltic Sea is a shallow inland sea on the continental shelf of northern Europe (Fig. 7.1). The shores and bottoms in the area of Sweden, Finland, Russia and Estonia are mainly rocky with skerries, while the shores and bottoms in the area of Latvia, Lithuania, the enclave of Königsberg (Russia), Poland, Germany and Denmark are mostly flat and sandy with sand, clay and silt bottoms. Water exchange with the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean is mainly through the shallow Danish Straits, Kattegat and Skagerak, resulting in a salinity range of 2–12‰ due to intermixing from riverine input. The area of the Baltic Sea is 392,979 km2, the water volume is 21,721 km3 and the average depth is 52.3 m with a maximum depth of 459 m.