A shallow sea in northern Europe, the Baltic is shaped roughly like a finger. For a sea, the Baltic has very fresh water, or water that is low in salt content. Several rivers, including the Oder, Vistula, Neva, and Neman, drain into the sea. This huge flow of river water, along with the fact that not much water flows out of the sea, explains why Baltic waters are relatively fresh. The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that lies between the Scandinavian peninsula and the rest of Europe. The countries that border the Baltic are Sweden, Denmark, Russia, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, and Poland. The sea has a total area of about 149,000 square miles (386,000 square kilometers). Physical featuresThe large islands of Bornholm, Öland, and Gotland are in the western part of the Baltic Sea. The Åland Islands, farther north, are between Sweden and Finland. They lie at the entrance to an arm of the Baltic Sea known as the Gulf of Bothnia. The entrance to the Gulf of Finland is just to the south of the Åland Islands. Danish islands split the western end of the Baltic Sea into narrow channels. The most important of these channels is The Sound. The Kiel Canal, in Germany, links the Baltic Sea directly with the North Sea. The Baltic–White Sea Canal connects the Baltic Sea with the Arctic Ocean. The sea is also linked to the Volga River, the main river of western Russia, by a system of canals and smaller rivers. The Baltic Sea is fairly shallow. Its average depth is 280 feet (85 meters). Landsort Deep, off the southeast coast of Sweden, is the deepest point at 1,506 feet (459 meters). Other deep areas in the Baltic are in the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland. The coasts of Sweden and Finland are generally rocky. The coasts on the southern Baltic, though, are flat. The Baltic coastline of Germany has a lot of bays and shallow, watery inlets called fjords. EconomyThe chief Baltic ports are Copenhagen, Denmark; Stockholm, Sweden; Helsinki, Finland; Saint Petersburg, Russia; and Gdansk, Poland. For many years the traditional items shipped from these ports were timber products from Sweden and Finland and iron from Sweden. These have largely been replaced by consumer goods, however. Industries in the area include light engineering, high-quality furnishings, and motor-vehicle production. Although fishing is less important than it once was, it is still a significant part of the economy. Most of the catch consists of herring, cod, and sprats followed by smaller quantities of eel, salmon, and shellfish. Exploration and developmentThe Vikings were the first to trade in the Baltic, in the 8th century AD. The history of the region since then has been based on efforts to control the sea. Sweden was able to build a powerful empire from the 12th to the 17th century because it had a large shipbuilding industry and fleet of ships. Denmark gained power because it could control the narrow straits through which ship traffic had to pass. The Hanseatic League, a collection of German merchant communities, was a powerful trading group in northern Europe from the 13th to the 15th century. The league began to do well when it established ports on the Baltic Sea that allowed members to avoid traveling through the Danish straits. As the countries around the sea prospered, the area became more and more developed. By the middle of the 20th century, pollution from the industries and farms in the region had become a concern. The native plants and animals of the Baltic region were threatened, and the economy of the region began to suffer. The fishing and tourism industries were particularly affected. In the early 1990s the Baltic countries agreed on a program to clean up the environment in and around the sea. |