The Baltic Sea is a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, enclosed by Denmark,

Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, northeast Germany, Poland, Russia and
the North and Central European Plain.

The sea stretches from 53�N to 66�N latitude and from 10�E to 30�E longitude. A
mediterranean sea of the Atlantic, with limited water exchange between the two
bodies, the Baltic Sea drains through the Danish islands into the Kattegat by way
of the straits of �resund, the Great Belt, and the Little Belt. It includes the
Gulf of Bothnia, the Bay of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland, the Gulf of Riga, and the
Bay of Gdansk.

The Baltic Proper is bordered on its northern edge, at the latitude 60�N, by the
�land islands and the Gulf of Bothnia, on its northeastern edge by the Gulf of
Finland, on its eastern edge by the Gulf of Riga, and in the west by the Swedish
part of the southern Scandinavian Peninsula.

The Baltic Sea is connected by artificial waterways to the White Sea via the White
Sea Canal and to the German Bight of the North Sea via the Kiel Canal.

Contents
1 Definitions
2 Etymology
2.1 Name in other languages
3 History
3.1 Classical world
3.2 Middle Ages
3.3 An arena of conflict
3.4 Since World War II
3.5 Storm floods
4 Geography
4.1 Geophysical data
4.2 Extent
4.3 Subdivisions
4.4 Temperature and ice
4.5 Hydrography
4.6 Salinity
4.7 Major tributaries
4.8 Islands and archipelagoes
4.9 Coastal countries
4.9.1 Cities
5 Geology
5.1 The "Baltic Sea anomaly"
6 Biology
6.1 Fauna and flora
6.2 Environmental status
7 Economy
7.1 Tourism
8 The Helsinki Convention
8.1 1974 Convention
8.2 1992 Convention
9 See also
10 References
11 Further reading
11.1 Historical
12 External links
Definitions

Danish Straits and southwestern Baltic Sea

Administration

The Helsinki Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic
Sea Area includes the Baltic Sea and the Kattegat, without calling Kattegat a part
of the Baltic Sea, "For the purposes of this Convention the 'Baltic Sea Area' shall
be the Baltic Sea and the Entrance to the Baltic Sea, bounded by the parallel of
the Skaw in the Skagerrak at 57�44.43'N."[3]

Traffic history

Historically, the Kingdom of Denmark collected Sound Dues from ships at the border
between the ocean and the land-locked Baltic Sea, in tandem: in the �resund at
Kronborg castle near Helsing�r; in the Great Belt at Nyborg; and in the Little Belt
at its narrowest part then Fredericia, after that stronghold was built. The
narrowest part of Little Belt is the "Middelfart Sund" near Middelfart.[4]

Oceanography

Geographers widely agree that the preferred physical border of the Baltic is a line
drawn through the southern Danish islands, Drogden-Sill and Langeland.[5] The
Drogden Sill is situated north of K�ge Bugt and connects Drag�r in the south of
Copenhagen to Malm�; it is used by the �resund Bridge, including the Drogden
Tunnel. By this definition, the Danish Straits are part of the entrance, but the
Bay of Mecklenburg and the Bay of Kiel are parts of the Baltic Sea. Another usual
border is the line between Falsterbo, Sweden and Stevns Klint, Denmark, as this is
the southern border of �resund. It's also the border between the shallow southern
�resund (with a typical depth of 5�10 meters only) and notably deeper water.

Hydrography and biology

Drogden Sill (depth of 7 m (23 ft)) sets a limit to �resund and Darss Sill (depth
of 18 m (59 ft)), and a limit to the Belt Sea.[6] The shallow sills are obstacles
to the flow of heavy salt water from the Kattegat into the basins around Bornholm
and Gotland.

The Kattegat and the southwestern Baltic Sea are well oxygenated and have a rich
biology. The remainder of the Sea is brackish, poor in oxygen and in species. Thus,
statistically, the more of the entrance that is included in its definition, the
healthier the Baltic appears; conversely, the more narrowly it is defined, the more
endangered its biology appears.

Etymology
Tacitus called it Mare Suebicum after the Germanic people of the Suebi,[7] and
Ptolemy Sarmatian Ocean after the Sarmatians,[8] but the first to name it the
Baltic Sea (Mare Balticum) was the eleventh-century German chronicler Adam of
Bremen. The origin of the latter name is speculative and it was adopted into Slavic
and Finnic languages spoken around the sea, very likely due to the role of Medieval
Latin in cartography. It might be connected to the Germanic word belt, a name used
for two of the Danish straits, the Belts, while others claim it to be directly
derived from the source of the Germanic word, Latin balteus "belt".[9] Adam of
Bremen himself compared the sea with a belt, stating that it is so named because it
stretches through the land as a belt (Balticus, eo quod in modum baltei longo
tractu per Scithicas regiones tendatur usque in Greciam).

He might also have been influenced by the name of a legendary island mentioned in
the Natural History of Pliny the Elder. Pliny mentions an island named Baltia (or
Balcia) with reference to accounts of Pytheas and Xenophon. It is possible that
Pliny refers to an island named Basilia ("the royal") in On the Ocean by Pytheas.
Baltia also might be derived from belt and mean "near belt of sea, strait."
Meanwhile, others have suggested that the name of the island originates from the
Proto-Indo-European root *bhel meaning "white, fair".[10] This root and its basic
meaning were retained in both Lithuanian (as baltas) and Latvian (as balts). On
this basis, a related hypothesis holds that the name originated from this Indo-
European root via a Baltic language such as Lithuanian.[11] Another explanation is
that, while derived from the aforementioned root, the name of the sea is related to
names for various forms of water and related substances in several European
languages, that might have been originally associated with colors found in swamps
(compare Proto-Slavic *bolto "swamp"). Yet another explanation is that the name
originally meant "enclosed sea, bay" as opposed to open sea.[12] Some Swedish
historians believe the name derives from the god Baldr of Nordic mythology.

In the Middle Ages the sea was known by a variety of names. The name Baltic Sea
became dominant only after 1600. Usage of Baltic and similar terms to denote the
region east of the sea started only in 19th century.

Name in other languages

The Baltic Sea was known in ancient Latin language sources as Mare Suebicum or even
Mare Germanicum.[13] Older native names in languages that used to be spoken on the
shores of the sea or near it usually indicate the geographical location of the sea
(in Germanic languages), or its size in relation to smaller gulfs (in Old Latvian),
or tribes associated with it (in Old Russian the sea was known as the Varanghian
Sea). In modern languages it is known by the equivalents of "East Sea", "West Sea",
or "Baltic Sea" in different languages:

"Baltic Sea" is used in Modern English; in the Baltic languages Latvian (Baltijas
jura; in Old Latvian it was referred to as "the Big Sea", while the present day
Gulf of Riga was referred to as "the Little Sea") and Lithuanian (Baltijos jura);
in Latin (Mare Balticum) and the Romance languages French (Mer Baltique), Italian
(Mar Baltico), Portuguese (Mar B�ltico), Romanian (Marea Baltica) and Spanish (Mar
B�ltico); in Greek (?a?t??? T??assa Valtik� Th�lassa); in Albanian (Deti Balltik);
in Welsh (M�r Baltig); in the Slavic languages Polish (Morze Baltyckie or Baltyk),
Czech (Baltsk� more or Balt), Slovenian (Baltsko morje), Bulgarian (????????? ????
Baltijsko More), Kashubian (B�lt), Macedonian (???????? ???? Balticko More),
Ukrainian (?????????? ???? Baltijs'ke More), Belarusian (?????????? ????
Baltyjskaje Mora), Russian (?????????? ???? Baltiyskoye More) and Serbo-Croatian
(Balticko more / ???????? ????); in Hungarian (Balti-tenger).
In Germanic languages, except English, "East Sea" is used, as in Afrikaans
(Oossee), Danish (�sters�en ['�st??s�??n?]), Dutch (Oostzee), German (Ostsee),
Icelandic and Faroese (Eystrasalt), Norwegian (Bokm�l: �stersj�en [��st???�?n];
Nynorsk: Austersj�en), and Swedish (�stersj�n). In Old English it was known as
Osts?; also in Hungarian the former name was Keleti-tenger ("East-sea", due to
German influence). In addition, Finnish, a Finnic language, has calqued the Swedish
term as It�meri "East Sea", disregarding the geography (the sea is west of
Finland), though understandably since Finland was a part of Sweden from the Middle
Ages until 1809.
In another Finnic language, Estonian, it is called the "West Sea" (L��nemeri), with
the correct geography (the sea is west of Estonia). In South Estonian, it has the
meaning of both "West Sea" and "Evening Sea" (�dagumeri).