This dataset describes fishing effort (hours/c-square) for all gear types in fourth quarter of 2013 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 contains seawater monitoring data reported by Contracting Parties of HELCOM to ICES DOME database and extracted for use in Hazardous substances indicators under the HELCOM Third Holistic Assessment of the Ecosystem Health of the Baltic Sea (HOLAS 3). Attribute specifications and units: series region l3area: HELCOM ID for HELCOM assessment units in scale 3 l4area: HELCOM ID for HELCOM assessment units in scale 4 country station_co: station code station_na: station name station_lo: station long name latitude: latitude longitude: longitude MSTAT WLYTP determinan: determinand determin_1: determinand group filtered basis unit series_typ: series type sym_shape colour n_year_all n_year_fit n_year_pos: n year positive first_year: first year all first_ye_1: first year fit last_year p_nonlinea p_linear p_overall p_linear_t: p linear trend linear_tre: linear trend p_recent_t: p recent trend recent_tre: recent trend detectable: detectable trend mean_last_: mean last year climit_las: climit last year EAC_type EAC_value EAC_diff EAC_achiev EAC_below

Observations of Vanellus vanellus 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. Vanellus vanellus has been placed to the Red List category of Near Threatened (NT) species. The map shows the species range only during breeding season.

Observations of Larus fuscus fuscus 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. Larus fuscus fuscus has been placed to the Red List category of Vulnerable (VU) species. The map shows the species range only during breeding season.

Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas (EBSA) are special areas in world's oceans that serve important purposes, in one way or another, to support the healthy functioning of oceans and the many services that they provide. Following the voluntary commitment from HELCOM Contracting Parties at the United Nations Oceans Conference in June 2017, HELCOM started the process of identifying EBSAs in the Baltic Sea. The February 2018 EBSA workshop resulted in a proposal for areas for the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to consider during the later half of 2018. Nine Baltic marine areas were described by the workshop participants as ecologically or biologically significant, including five transboundary areas covering waters of two or more countries. The described EBSAs extend into 14 of the 17 Baltic Sea sub-basins. Altogether, they cover 23% of the Baltic Sea, slightly higher than the 19% the average in other areas of the world. The described EBSAs are: - Northern Bothnian Bay - Kvarken Archipelago - Åland Sea, Åland Islands and the Archipelago Sea of Finland - Eastern Gulf of Finland - Inner Sea of West Estonian Archipelago - Southeastern Baltic Sea Shallows - Southern Gotland Harbour Porpoise Area - Fehmarn Belt - Fladen and Stora and Lilla Middelgrund. This dataset contains borders of these 9 areas and related attribute information.

This core indicator evaluates the status of abundance of wintering waterbirds in the Baltic Sea region. The wintering waterbirds are considered to reflect good status when at least 75% of the considered species deviate less than 30% downwards (species laying more than one egg per year) or 20% downwards (species laying one egg per year) from the baseline condition during the reference period 1991-2000. This dataset displays the result of the indicator in HELCOM Assessment Scale 1 (Whole Baltic Sea). Attribute information: "level_1" = Name of scale 1 HELCOM assessment unit "AULEVEL" = Assessment unit level used for the indicator "Status" = Status of the indicator (“Achieve”, “Fail” or “Not assessed”) "Eurasian Teal" = Results for Eurasian teal "Black-headed Gull" = Results for black-headed gull "Common Gull" = Results for common gull "Great Black-backed Gull" = Results for great black-backed gull "Herring Gull" = Results for herring gull "Smew" = Results for smew "Goosander" = Results for goosander "Red-breasted Merganser" = Results for red-breasted merganser "Great Crested Grebe" = Results for great crested grebe "Great Cormorant" = Results for great cormorant "Common Pochard" = Results for common pochard "Tufted Duck" = Results for tufted duck "Greater Scaup" = Results for greater scaup "Steller's Eider" = Results for Steller's eider "Common Goldeneye" = Results for common goldeneye "Mute Swan" = Results for mute swan "Whooper Swan" = Results for whooper swan "Bewick's Swan" = Results for Bewick's swan "Mallard" = Results for mallard "Northern Pintail" = Results for northern pintail "Eurasian Coot" = Results for Eurasian coot "Eurasian Wigeon" = Results for Eurasian wigeon

This core indicator evaluates the state of the marine environment using distribution of the three species of seals that occur in the Baltic Sea. This dataset is for the Ringed seal. Quantitative thresholds are used to evaluate the core indicators status in "Achieve", "Fail" or "Not assessed". The core indicator has three components for each species: distribution of haul-out sites, breeding sites and foraging areas. Good status is achieved when the distribution of seals is close to pristine conditions (e.g. 100 years ago), or where appropriate when currently available haul-out sites are occupied (modern baseline), and when no decrease in area of occupation occurs. The current evaluation covers the assessment period 2011-2016. This dataset displays the result of the indicator in HELCOM Assessment Scale 2 (Division of the Baltic Sea into 17 sub-basins). Attribute information: "HELCOM_ID" = ID of the HELCOM scale 2 assessment unit "Area (km2)" = Area of the HELCOM scale 2 assessment unit "Name" = Name of the HELCOM scale 2 assessment unit "Status" = Status of the indicator (“Achieve”, “Fail” or “Not assessed”) "AULEVEL" = Assessment unit level used for the indicator

Summary Estimated observations of the biotope AB.H4U1 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 meiofaunaThe 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.H4U1 according to HELCOM RED LIST assessment experts:The biotope is assumed to occur throughout the Baltic Sea both in shallow coastal waters and in the deeper central parts of the sea. The distribution map indicates the area in the 100 x 100 km grid where biotope is reported to occur. The biotope may have a significantly wider distribution.(Data (expert judgements) collected in HELCOM RED LIST project, released in May 2013)

This dataset contains data used for assessing the HELCOM core indicator Reproductive status of seals 2018. The data has been collated by indicator leads based on national monitoring data. For this dataset, the data is aggregated and summarized by ICES Subdivisions. Attribute information: "Major_FA" = FAO Major Area "SubArea" = FAO Subarea "Division" = ICES division "Area_km2" = Area of ICES sub-division "Country" = Country "Species" = Seal species "Code" "Year" = Year of data collection "Date" = Date of data collection "Month" = Month of data collection "Sex" = Sex of the collected individual "Swedish_re" "ICES_SD" = ICES sub-division "Age" = Age of the collected individual "Cause_of_d" = Cause of death "Length" = Lengh of the collected individual "Pregnant" "Data_sourc" = Data source "Data_origi" = Country of the data "Data_restr" = Data restriction

Recreational fishing yearly catches of cod 2011-2016 based on the reports of ICES Working Group on Recreational Fisheries Surveys (WGRFS). Recreational fishing is the capture or attempted capture of living aquatic resources mainly for leisure and/or personal consumption. This covers active fishing methods including line, spear, and hand–gathering and passive fishing methods including nets, traps, pots, and set–lines (considered recreational in some countries).