This dataset contains all HBCD in biota monitoring station locations, observed matrix, biota matrix and monitored species as reported to HELCOM secretariat by HELCOM Contracting Parties by 2016.

Broad-scale habitat maps for the Baltic Sea have been produced in the EUSeaMap project in 2016. For German and Estonian marine areas, national (more accurate) datasets were used. German data included both substrate and light information (division into infralittoral/circalittoral). Estonian data included only substrate and the division into light regimes was obtained from the EuSeaMap data. Here, the habitat class “infralittoral hard substrate” includes classes “Rock and other hard substrate” and “Coarse substrate” of the original data, in the infralittoral zone. The original polygon maps have been converted to 1 km x 1 km grid. The scale of the substrate data used in broad-scale habitat maps varies from 1:250 000 to 1:1M (data from EMODnet Geology). Coarser resolution data has been used in areas, where 1: 250 000 substrate data has not been available. Due to different scales used, the habitat classes may show different sized patterns in different areas.

This dataset contains all heavy metal monitoring station locations, observed matrix, biota matrix and monitored species as reported to HELCOM secretariat by HELCOM Contracting Parties by 2016.

This dataset contains all PCB in seawater monitoring station locationsas reported to HELCOM secretariat by HELCOM Contracting Parties by 2016.

This dataset contains all HBCD in seawater monitoring station locationsas reported to HELCOM secretariat by HELCOM Contracting Parties by 2016.

The dataset was created in order to update the information regarding underwater pipelines in the Baltic Sea Region for the HELCOM Assessments. Data was collected by the HELCOM Secretariat during 2015. The data was made available by HELCOM Contracting Parties in response to data request. The data was received from Denmark, Germany, Finland and Poland. The report data represents constructions on respective territorial waters, authorized facilities and activities from 2015. The activity was declared as not relevant in Lithuanian area. From Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia and Sweden no data was reported. Attribute specification and units: NAME COUNTRY CAPACITY (MW) STATUS (Operational, Under Construction, Application Submitted, Planned, Unknown) SOURCE

This map presents the Special Protection Areas (SPAs) with reported wintering areas for birds. The spatial data on SPAs 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.

This dataset is built from the following Human activities dataset: • Hunting of seals The number of hunted seals (see separate metadata on hunting of seals) were averaged over 2011-2014 separately for grey seals, ringed seals and harbour seals (e.g. number of hunted grey seals / year). In Sweden the numbers of hunted grey seals in 2011 (74) were reported for the whole Swedish territorial waters), but here the numbers were set only to Swedish Gulf of Bothnia, as corresponding numbers were reported there in 2013 (75) and 2014 (65). The area of the reporting unit was used to calculate the number of hunted seals / km2 and the data was converted to 1km x 1km grid. For the Baltic Sea Impact Index, the values were normalized. Normalized value 0.5 was set to the level of quota for hunting of seal species in the Baltic Sea. The following quotas for hunting were used: Grey seal: 2000, Ringed seal: 350, Harbour seal 230.

Shellfish production in kilograms in 2010-2015 in geometry form: area (polygon). Swedish data covers only the permitted production in year 2015 (Swedish data in the point dataset). The data was made available by HELCOM Contracting Parties in response to data request. The data was received from Denmark (area), Germany (points) and Sweden (points). The activity was declared as not relevant in Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Russia. Attribute specification and units ID: Mariculture identification (DK) NR: Identification number (DK, mariculture permits) Country: Country AVG_all: A calculated average of production in 2010-2015 (Kg/year) AVG_11_15: A calculated average of shellfish production in 2011-2015 (Kg/year) 2010_Kg – 2015_Kg: An annual shellfish production (Kg) Area: Area of the shellfish mariculture (km2)

Location of water course modifications (trenching, culverting, canalisation). The data was made available by HELCOM Contracting Parties in response to data request. The data was received from Estonia, Finland and Poland. Data reported by Finland and Poland as water course modification were interpreted as pipelines and were included in HELCOM HOLAS 2 Pipelines dataset. The activity was declared as not relevant in Germany and Lithuania. From Latvia, Russia and Sweden no data was reported.