Large shallow inlets bays (according to Habitats Directive Annex I) are large, shallow indentations of the coast, sheltered from wave action and where, in contrast to estuaries, the influence of freshwater is generally limited. The distribution map is based on data submission by HELCOM contracting parties. Most of the submitted data is based on GIS analysis and modelling, but also field inventories and ground-truthing has been carried out in some areas. Data coverage, accuracy and the methods in obtaining the data vary between countries.

This dataset contains disposal sites reported by HELCOM Contracting Parties, according to the HELCOM Recommendation 36/2 (https://helcom.fi/action-areas/industrial-municipal-releases/dredging/). The disposal sites are grouped by spatial data type to pointwise, line and polygon datasets. Data covers the years 2006-2023. The data format is defined in the HELCOM Guidelines for management of dredged material at sea (https://helcom.fi/action-areas/industrial-municipal-releases/dredging/). Attribute information (heading for downloadable shapefile): Helcom site ID (Helcom_sit): Unique id for deposit site Dredging ID (Dredging_I): Dredging site id, where material originates from Unique ID (Unique_ID): Unique id for each depositing activity (Helcom site ID + Dredging ID + year) Site name (Site_name): Name of the deposit site Type of area dredged (Type_of_ar): Type of area that was dredged (e.g. harbour or sea) Dredging activity (Dredging_a): Maintenance or capital dredging Material deposited (Material_d): The type of material deposited (e.g. sand, silt) Amount deposited (tonnes) (Amount_dep): Amount of material that has been deposited to deposit site, tonnes dry weight Amount beneficial use (tonnes) (Amount_ben): Amount material used for beneficial purposes, tonnes dry weight Beneficial use (Beneficial): Description of beneficial use Year (Year): Year of activity Country (Country): Contracting Party of HELCOM Sub-basin (Sub_basin): HELCOM sub-basin (assessment unit level 2) where activity has taken place Comments (Comments): General comments related to activity Contaminants Cd - SPAH9: Amount of contaminant deposited, in tonnes dry weight Contaminants SPCB7 - MBT : Amount of contaminant deposited, in kilograms dry weight Other contaminants (kg) (Other_cont): Any other contaminant deposited (substance indicated in "notes") Petroleum HC (tonnes) (Petroleum_): Amount of Petroleum HC deposited, in tonnes dry weight HCB - DEHP DBP BBP: Amount of contaminant deposited, in kilograms dry weight Contaminant notes (Contaminan): Notes related to contaminant load Permit (Permit): Deposit site permit reference Quality flag (Quality_fl): Quality flag of data - Quality assured: Data is quality assured either in the annual verification or in a separate quality assurance process by EN DREDS - No quality assurance: Data is not quality assured due to the reason that process has not been carried out - No Quality assurance possible: Data quality assurance process has been made, but it was not possible to find the reference data to verify the parameters

This dataset represents the underlying data on core indicator in Abundance of key coastal fish species. The core indicator evaluates the abundance of typical species of fish, such as perch and flounder, in the coastal areas of the Baltic Sea, to assess environmental status. Quantitative thresholds are used to evaluate if core indicators status is Good, Not good or Not assessed. As a rule, good status is achieved when the abundance is above a set site and species-specific threshold value. This dataset displays the result of the indicator in HELCOM Assessment Scale 3 (Division of the Baltic Sea into 17 sub-basins and further division into coastal and offshore areas). Attribute information: "COUNTRY" = Country code "DATAPROVID" = Data provider "AREANAME" = ICES area "A_unit" = Name of scale 3 HELCOM assessment unit "IND_VALUE" = Result value for the indicator "METHOD" = Catch method "GEARTYPE" = Gear type of catch "SEASONID" = Season

This dataset describes fishing intensity for Dredge mobile bottom contacting gear in 2015 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.H2T1 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 characterized by sea-pensThe 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.H2T1 according to HELCOM RED LIST assessment experts:Because of its salinity and depth requirements, this habitat occurs mostly in the deeper parts of Kattegat. The most common sea pen species Virgularia mirabilis and Pennatula phosphorea have been observed for example in the deep trenches of the Kattegat (The Kattegat trench, the Ddupa Rännan trench), in the Groves Flak and near the island Ven in the Sound. The habitat has likely suffered from bottom trawling as trawling marks and badly disturbed seabeds has been recorded in the area of their distribution. Distribution map indicates the area in the 100 x 100 km grid where biotopes are known to occur.(Data (expert judgements) collected in HELCOM RED LIST project, released in May 2013)

Observations of Pleurogonium rubicundum 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. Pleurogonium rubicundum has been placed to the Red List category of Data Deficient (DD) species. Dataset for download contains spatial grid of the Baltic Sea. Distribution of the species can be found in corresponding name column. Values are coded: 1 - Present before year 2000 or in 2000, 2 - Present after year 2000, 3 - Present both before and after year 2000.

This dataset describes fishing intensity for Seine mobile bottom contacting gear in 2014 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.

Observations of Coregonus maraena 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. Coregonus maraena has been placed to the Red List category of Endangered (EN) species. The map shows the sub-basins in the HELCOM area where the species is known to occur regularly and to reproduce (HELCOM 2012).

This core indicator evaluates the status of the marine environment based on concentrations of heavy metal Mercury (Hg) in fish muscle. Quantitative threshold value is used to evaluate if core indicators status is "Achieve", "Fail" or "Not assessed". Threshold values are based on Environmental quality standards (EQS), defined at EU level for substances included in the priority list under the Water Framework Directive. This dataset displays the result of the indicator in HELCOM Assessment Scale 4 (Division of the Baltic Sea into 17 sub-basins and further division into coastal and off-shore areas and division of the coastal areas by WFD water types or water bodies). Attribute specifications and units: "HELCOM_ID" = Code of the HELCOM scale 4 assessment unit "country": country in which the HELCOM assessment unit is located or a mention to an open sea area "level_2" = Name of the HELCOM assessment unit in scale 2 "Name" = Name of the HELCOM assessment unit in scale 4 "Open_sea" = Name of the HELCOM assessment unit in the open sea "F2_Name" = Name of the HELCOM assessment unit "determinan" = Determinat "est" = The estimated mean loge concentration in the assessment unit "se" = The standard error on the estimated mean log concentration in the assessment unit "fit" = The estimated mean concentration in the assessment unit "upper_cl" = Upper one-sided 95% confidence limit on the mean concentration: exp(est + qnorm(0.95) * see) "Status" = Overall Status of the indicator according to one-out-all-out

The pressure oil slicks and spills is combination of following datasets: Illegal oil discharges (2016-2021): Value of spills (VOLUME) under OR EQUAL 1km2 was directly given to grid cell. If the spill area > 1km2, a buffer with the area was added (circular buffer based on estimated radius) and the estimated volume of the spill was divided by the spill area to get the estimated amount of oil / km2. This value was given to the entire spill area. If oil spill volume was missing, mean of values was given. If area of spill was missing (103/560), mean of values was given. If the spill was < or = 1km2, the value of spill volume was given directly to 1km2 grid cell. If the spill area was > 1km2, the estimated volume of the spill was divided by the spill area to get the estimated amount of oil / km2. This value was given to the entire spill area. Layer was log transformed and normalized. Polluting ship accidents (2016-2020): Point, spill volume (m3) converted directly to 1 x 1 km grid A mean of reported volumes was given to accidents with missing oil volume. Spill volume in m3 was given directly to 1km2 grid cell. Layer was log transformed and normalized. Layers were separately normalised. After that, layers were summed and again normalised to produce the final pressure value between 0 and 1.