This core indicator evaluates the abundance of selected functional groups of coastal fish in the Baltic Sea. Quantitative thresholds are used to classify core indicators status in "Achieve", "Fail" or "Not assessed". As a rule, good status is achieved when the abundance of piscivores (i.e. fish that feed on other fish) is above a site-specific threshold value, and the abundance of cyprinids or mesopredators (i.e. mid trophic-level fish) is within an acceptable range for the specific site. The status of functional groups of coastal fish in the Baltic Sea has been evaluated by assessing the status of piscivores and cyprinids/mesopredators during the period 2011-2016. This dataset displays the result of the indicator for piscivores in HELCOM Assessment Scale 3 (Division of the Baltic Sea into 17 sub-basins and further division into coastal and offshore areas). Attribute information: "HELCOM_ID" = HELCOM ID of the HELCOM scale 3 assessment unit "Country" = Country/ Open sea "level_2" = Name of scale 2 HELCOM assessment unit "Name" = "level_3" = Name of scale 3 HELCOM assessment unit "Area (km2)" = Area of the HELCOM scale 3 assessment unit "Coastal" = Code of scale 3 HELCOM assessment unit  "Open sea" = Name of the open sea area "Coast_Code" = Code of scale 3 HELCOM assessment unit "Subbasin code" = Code of the HELCOM subbasin (scale 3) "Indicator" = Name of the indicator "Unit" = Unit of the indicator "Type" = 1 = boundary values increase/decrease monotonically, 2 = optimum range indicator "Threshold" = Threshold value of indicator "Indicator value" = Result value for the indicator "Status" = Status of the indicator (“Achieve”, “Fail” or “Not assessed”) "AULEVEL" = Assessment unit level used for the indicator "ConfA" = Confidence of classification "ConfT" = Temporal confidence of classification "ConfS" = Spatial confidence of classification "ConfM" = Methodological confidence of classification

This dataset contains all PBDEstations by sub-basin in the Baltic Sea as reported to the HELCOM MORE project.

This dataset describes fishing effort (hours/c-square) for mobile bottom-contacting gear in 2009 based on VMS/Log book data processed by ICES Working Group on Spatial Fisheries Data (WGSFD). HELCOM requires spatially explicit information on fishing activity affecting the Baltic Sea marine ecosystem for policy purposes. In order to obtain this information a joint ICES/HELCOM/OSPAR data call was issued to relevant authorities of contracting parties to deliver information on fishing activity based on VMS/Log book data. The raw data was submitted to ICES and processed to advice data products by ICES Working Group for Spatial Fisheries (WGSFD) as requested by HELCOM. Processing of the raw data requires specific resources, knowledge and guarantee of anonymity for specific vessels, thus the process was done by ICES WGSFD following Conditions for VMS data use. In 2015 ICES collated Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) and logbook data received; data from Russia were not received. ICES provided to HELCOM advice as fishing abrasion pressure maps as well as fishing effort maps. HELCOM secretariat did the following processing to the data: - Conversion to ETRS89LAEA coordinate system - Added feature and attribute "Reported" to display unreported areas. Dataset attribute information: c-square: Unique reference of the c-square polygon mid_lat: latitude coordinate of the centroid of c-square inWGS84 decimal degrees mid_lon: longitude coordinate of the centroid of c-square inWGS84 decimal degrees Year: Year of fishing activity quarter: Quarter of the year, if applicable geargroup: Fishing gear group (Effort maps) SubsurfSAR: Subsurface swept area ratio (Intensity maps) SurfSAR: Surface swept area ratio (Intensity maps) Fishing_ho: Total fishing effort in hours within c-square (Effort maps) Reported: Yes=Reported data. No= No reported data (area that does not contain effort/intensity value due to lack of reported data.

This dataset describes fishing intensity for subsurface mobile bottom contacting gear in 2011 based on VMS/Log book data processed by ICES Working Group on Spatial Fisheries Data (WGSFD). ICES secretariat collected during 2017 relevant VMS and logbook data for 2009-2016 to produce, as a technical service to HELCOM, updated spatial data layers on fishing intensity/pressure. Improved data quality control checks were implemented. Submitted data across the HELCOM area have improved in quality compared to previous data 2009-2013 published in 2015. Standardized methods were used to produce the requested data layers. The code used to create the data products is available here: https://github.com/ices-eg/wg_WGSFD For further technical information on the advice request, see http://www.ices.dk/sites/pub/Publication%20Reports/Advice/2017/Special_requests/helcom.2017.18.pdf HELCOM secretariat did the following processing to the shapefile provided by ICES: - Conversion to ETRS89LAEA coordinate system - Added feature and attribute "Reported" to display unreported areas. Dataset attribute information: c-square: Unique reference of the c-square polygon Year: Year of fishing activity mid_lat: latitude coordinate of the centroid of c-square inWGS84 decimal degrees mid_lon: longitude coordinate of the centroid of c-square inWGS84 decimal degrees SurfaceSAR: Surface area ratio (Swept area, < 2 cm penetration depth of the gear components) Subsurface: Subsurface area ratio (Swept area, subsurface =>2 cm penetration depth of the gear components) totweight: Total Weight (kg) totvalue: Total value (Euros) Kw Fishing Hours: (Kw*h) Fishing hours: (h) Reported: Yes=Reported data. No= No reported data (area that does not contain effort/intensity value due to lack of reported data). Please note that this dataset was updated (v2) in January 2019, see further details below in the lineage section.

Summary Estimated observations of the biotope AB.H3L3 were collected from the Baltic Sea area by expert judgements for HELCOM Red List of biotopes, habitats and biotope complexes. Description Baltic aphotic muddy sediment dominated by ocean quahog (Arctica islandica)The HELCOM Red List of Baltic Sea underwater biotopes, habitats and biotope complexes (2013) is an updated and improved version of the Red List assessment of marine and coastal biotopes and biotope complexes published in 1998. The classification of the report follows the proposed International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) criteria and assessment principals but with some modifications for the Baltic Sea.Altogether, the HELCOM Underwater Biotope and habitat classification (HELCOM HUB) includes 209 biotopes of which 59 were red-listed. Many of the red-listed biotopes are located in deep areas of the Baltic Sea due to oxygen-free nature as well as in the southwestern Baltic Sea due to the salinity restricted distribution of species in certain biotope. The HELCOM assessment relies heavily on expert judgment and inference, and the questionnaire data represents the estimated presence-absence data not in-situ measured data. This must be taken in account when observing the map presentation. The biotopes are shown on the map using the EEA 100 km grid. This dataset displays estimated presence of AB.H3L3 according to HELCOM RED LIST assessment experts:The distribution map indicates the area in the 100 x 100 km grid where biotope is believed to occur based on environmental conditions and the availability of the muddy substrate. The biotope has declined severely in the indicated area.(Data (expert judgements) collected in HELCOM RED LIST project, released in May 2013)

Physical loss pressure layer combines all human activities that cause physical loss of seabed. The pressure is given as area lost in each cell (km2). For the polygon datasets the area was assumed to be the lost area. For line and point datasets spatial extents were calculated with buffers (below in brackets). If no buffer extent is indicated, the data was reported as polygon. The human activities used for the physical loss pressure: - Bridges (2 m) - Cables (operational; 1,5 m) - Coastal defence and flood protection (area of polygon, 50 m for lines) - Dredging (capital dredging, Area of polygon or a 25/50 m buffer for <5000 m3 / >5000m3 points) - Extraction of sand and gravel - Finfish mariculture (150 m) - Harbours (polygon with 200 m buffer) - Land claim (area of polygon, 30m buffer for lines) - Marinas and leisure harbours (200 m) - Oil platforms (25 m) - Oil terminals and refineries (200 m) - Pipelines (operational; 15 m) - Shellfish mariculture (area of polygon, 150 m points) - Watercourse modification (50 m) - Wind turbines (operational; 30m point location of turbine) The datasets were first processed separately covering the whole Baltic Sea and then merged into one uniform data layer and minimizing the effect of overlapping areas. Polygon areas were clipped with coastline to remove buffered areas that reached to land.

Dataset description: This dataset displays spatial coverage of available data on riverine inputs of hazardous substances to the Baltic Sea. The data illustrates availability and where available contains values of annual average inputs of hazardous substances (the latest assessment period) from sub-catchments and coastal areas designated for the HELCOM PLC assessment. The sub-catchments are the smallest areas for which loads of nutrients and hazardous substances are assessed. Sub-catchments are always located within borders of a single country and drain into one Baltic Sea sub-basin. Sub-catchments may correspond to either monitored or unmonitored areas. Unmonitored sub-catchments may represent either unmonitored parts of river catchments or aggregated unmonitored areas (depending on the reporting format of each Contracting Party). The data is obtained through national monitoring programmes and annually reported by Contracting Parties to the HELCOM Pollution Load Compilation (PLC-water) database as an integral part of HELCOM Pollution Load Compilation process https://nest.su.se/helcom_plc/. However, the assessment of inputs and respective data updates are performed periodically in accordance with the workplan of respective PLC-projects. The data is produced, compiled and quality assured in accordance with the HELCOM Guidelines for the annual and periodical compilation and reporting of waterborne pollution inputs to the Baltic Sea (HELCOM PLC-Water Guideline). Dataset content: Polygonal feature class contains the following attributes: Source code (source_code): Unique code for river sub-catchments and unmonitored areas Source name (source_name): Name of river catchment or unmonitored area Sub-basin code (subb_code): Sub-basin of the Baltic Sea the sub-catchment drains to. Country code (c_code): The Country on which territory the river mouth is located, for border rivers both are mentioned. Area km2 (area_km2): Polygon area in sq.km. Cd_20XX: annual average input of cadmium in each year of the assessment period (tonnes/year) Cd_average: average input of cadmium in the assessment period (tonnes/year) Cr_20XX: annual average input of cadmium in each year of the assessment period (tonnes/year) Cr_average: average input of chromium in the assessment period (tonnes/year) Cu_20XX: annual average input of cadmium in each year of the assessment period (tonnes/year) Cu_average: average input of copper in the assessment period (tonnes/year) Hg_20XX:annual average input of cadmium in each year of the assessment period (tonnes/year) Hg_average: average input of mercury in the assessment period (tonnes/year) Ni_20XX: annual average input of cadmium in each year of the assessment period (tonnes/year) Ni_average: average input of nickel in the assessment period (tonnes/year) Pb_20XX: annual average input of cadmium in each year of the assessment period (tonnes/year) Pb_average: average input of lead in the assessment period (tonnes/year) Zn_20XX: annual average input of cadmium in each year of the assessment period (tonnes/year) Zn_average: average input of zinc in the assessment period (tonnes/year) Year: year of the assessment Visualization: The following maps visualize the data: Map of data coverage for zinc Map of data coverage for chromium Map of data coverage for copper Map of data coverage for nickel Map of data coverage for lead Map of data coverage for cadmium Map of data coverage for mercury Data update: Metadata is updated by HELCOM Secretariat periodically after adoption of PLC report on sources of nutrients. The dataset is updated by HELCOM Secretariat periodically after adoption of PLC report on sources of nutrients.

This map presents the Special Protection Areas (SPAs) with reported breeding areas for birds. The spatial data on Special Protection Areas were gathered from the HELCOM contracting parties by Lund University, Sweden. In the data, the countries also indicated whether the sites were designated mainly due to wintering or breeding birds in the area. For Denmark, the information was obtained from standard forms for Natura 2000 sites. For Denmark, the data was updated after review process 20 February 2017. For Germany, the areas that were reported as “NA”(=information not available) were included in both breeding and wintering area maps. Many of the SPAs are both wintering and breeding areas. For the Baltic Sea Impact Index, the data was converted to 1 km x 1km grid cells.

Estuaries (according to Habitats Directive Annex I) are coastal inlets that are strongly influenced by freshwater. The distribution map is based on data submission by HELCOM contracting parties. Most of the submitted data is based on modelling, GIS analysis and/or aerial photos. Data coverage, accuracy and the methods in obtaining the data vary between countries.

Observations of Liparis montagui were collected from the Baltic Sea area for HELCOM Red List species list. The HELCOM Red List of Baltic Sea species in danger of becoming extinct (2013) is the first threat assessment for Baltic Sea species that covers all marine mammals, fish, birds, macrophytes (aquatic plants), and benthic invertebrates, and follows the Red List criteria of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Almost 2800 species were considered in the Red List assessment and about 1750 were evaluated according to the IUCN Red List criteria. Liparis montagui has been placed to the Red List category of Least Concern (LC) species. The map shows the sub-basins in the HELCOM area where the species is known to occur regularly and to reproduce (HELCOM 2012).