This dataset depicts risk of oil spills from collision with fixed objects and spills from offshore platforms, terminals, bunkering and STS operation. The modeled risk is calculated for the scenario year 2020 based on predicted traffic density. The area of the bubbles corresponds to the risk of spill of oil and hazardous substances. The unit of the risk is average tonnes per year. This dataset has been produced by Albrecht Lentz, COWI (http://www.cowi.dk) for the BRISK project (Sub-regional risk of spill of oil and hazardous substances in the Baltic Sea, http://www.brisk.helcom.fi/). The dataset is a model result from a software code owned and operated by COWI. BRISK and BRISK-RU provide information on spatial distribution of risks of pollution from ships in the six sub-regions of the Baltic Sea, according to different types of accidents and spill sizes. The assessment takes into account the existing risk control measures as well as the prognosis for future maritime traffic. Groundings and ship-to-ship collisions are by far the most likely types of accidents resulting in pollution. Other kinds of incidents, such as fire, collisions with fixed objects, spills from offshore platforms, as well as illegal discharges have minor contribution to the risks. Further, the oil impact has been modelled. The oil impact can be described as the amount of spilled oil that is expected on the sea surface. The effects of oil drift, weathering and fate, as well as the oil recovery are taken into account. Field descriptions: LON: Longitude (center of ellipse) LAT: Latitude (center of ellipse) SPILLALL: Risk [average tonnes per year], sum of all spills. Used for visualization. SPILL12: Risk [average tonnes per year], small size spills. SPILL34: Risk [average tonnes per year], medium size spills. SPILL123: Risk [average tonnes per year], small & medium size spills. SPILL4: Risk [average tonnes per year], medium size spills. SPILL1234: Risk [average tonnes per year], small & medium size spills. SPILL567: Risk [average tonnes per year] large spills.

Amount of hunted birds (number of birds/area) per year per area (county) is given separately for each target species: common scooter (Melanitta nigra), velvet scoter (Melanitta fusca), eider (Somateri molissima) and long tailed duck (Clangula hymalis). The data was made available by HELCOM Contracting Parties in response to data request. The data was received from Denmark, Estonia, Finland and Sweden. The activity was declared as not relevant in Germany, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. For each species, a total number of hunted birds during the time period and a calculated average (hunted birds/year), is given. Data includes a total number (sum) of all hunted birds during the time period per county (total number of hunted birds/ county) and an average for hunted birds annually (hunted individuals/year). Velvet scoter is protected species in Sweden and Finland, and not listed as a game in Estonia. Common scoter is also protected species in Finland, thus hunting data is not available. Attribute specification and units: Country: Country AreaCode: County’s national code Area: County, unit area TOTAL: Total number of hunted birds in 2011-2015 Average: An average of hunted birds in a year (hunted birds/year) 2011_Sco – 2015_Sco: Number of hunted common scoters in 2011-2015 SUM_Sco: Total number of hunted common scoters in 2011-2015 Mean_Sco: An average number of hunted common scoters in a year (hunted individuals/year) 2011_VSco – 2015_VSco: Number of hunted velvet scoters in 2011 - 2015 SUM_Vsco: Total number of hunted velvet scoters in 2011-2015 Mean_Vsco: An average number of hunted velvet scoters in a year (hunted individuals/year) 2011_Eider – 2015_Eider: Number of hunted eiders in 2011 - 2015 SUM_Eider: Total number of hunted eiders in 2011-2015 Mean_Eider: An average number of hunted eiders in a year (hunted individuals/year) 2011_LTDuc – 2015_LTDuc: Number of hunted long tailed ducks in 2011 – 2015 SUM_LTDuck: Total number of hunted long tailed ducks in 2011-2015 Mean_LTDuc: An average number of hunted long tailed ducks in a year (hunted individuals/year) Notes: Notes regarding the data

This dataset describes fishing intensity for DRB MOL 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.

This dataset describes fishing intensity for Seine mobile bottom contacting gear in 2010 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.

The dataset contains the location of oil refineries derived from the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR). The dataset covers all HELCOM Contracting Parties except Russia.

A vector grid in 2 x 2 km resolution showing model results of environmental damage caused by spill of soluble chemicals from ships with size less than 5000 t as incidents/million years weighted.This dataset has been produced by COWI (http://www.cowi.dk) for the BRISK project (Sub-regional risk of spill of oil and hazardous substances in the Baltic Sea, http://www.brisk.helcom.fi/). Fields: COL_NO (Dbl): Column ROW_NO (Dbl): Row WLoad (Dbl): Environmental damage (Incidents/million years weighted).

This core indicator evaluates the status of the marine environment based on concentrations of perfluorooctane sulphonate (PFOS) in Baltic Sea fish and in a few assessment units using the secondary matrix seawater. Quantitative thresholds are used to evaluate if core indicators status is "Achieve", "Fail" or "Not assessed". Good status is achieved when the concentrations of PFOS are below the threshold value. 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 information: "OBJECTID" = Object identification "HELCOM_ID" = Code of the HELCOM scale 4 assessment unit "Descriptio" = Description of the HELCOM scale 4 assessment unit "AULEVEL" = Assessment unit level used for the indicator "Contamination ratio in biota" = Contamination ratio in biota for this substance "Status in biota" = Status of the indicator in biota (“Achieve”, “Fail” or “Not assessed”) "Contamination ratio in water" = Contamination ratio in water for this substance "Status in water" = Status of the indicator in water(“Achieve”, “Fail” or “Not assessed”) "Overall status" = Overall Status of the indicator according to one-out-all-out (“Achieve”, “Fail” or “Not assessed”)

The dataset contains information on commercial fishery in Baltic Sea in 2007 (Lithuanian data from 2008). Catches/landings are given per ICES rectangle, both as total values and per fishing gear type. The dataset contains information on commercial fishery in Baltic Sea in 2007 (Lithuanian data from 2008). Catches/landings are given per ICES rectangle, both as total values and per fishing gear type. The gear categories are: 0 = unspecified, 1 = surface and mid-water gears, 2 = bottom trawling gears and 3 = coastal and stationary gears. All values are in tons. Data was requested from HELCOM contracting parties through HELCOM HOLAS project. Landings/ catches data from Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia is based on national data, while Russian data is based on the ICES report "Report of the Baltic Fisheries Assessment Working Group (WGBFAS)" (2008). Commercial fishery data was reported by the following persons/authorities to HELCOM Secretariat: Germany:Dr. Christopher Zimmermann (Institut für Ostseefischerei (OSF), Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institut (vTI), Bundesforschungsinstitut für Ländliche Räume, Wald und Fischerei) Lithuania: Open sea: Irina Jakovleva (Fisheries Reguliation Division, Baltic Sea Fisheries Department, Fisheries Department under the Ministry of Agriculture); coastal: Rimantas Repecka (Head of Laboratory of Marine Ecology, Institute of Ecology of Vilnius University) Sweden: Jarl Engquist (Avdelningen för fiskerikontroll, Swedish Board of Fisheries) Latvia: Marina Fettere (Fishery and Information section, Latvian Fish Resources Agency) Finland: Pirkko Söderkultalahti (Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute) Estonia: Ministry of Agriculture Denmark: Troels Pade (The Danish Directorate of Fisheries, Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries) Russia: no contact person, data from ICES reports Poland: Malgorzata Marciniewicz-Mykieta (Departament Monitoringu i Informacji o Srodowisku, Glówny Inspektorat Ochrony Srodowiska).

This dataset contains data used for the HELCOM Core indicator State of the soft-bottom macrofauna community for HOLAS 3. Attribute information: "SampleID" = Sample ID "Station" = Station name "Year" = Year of sampling event "Latitude" = Latitude coordinate (WGS84 decimal degrees) "Longitude" = Longitude coordinate (WGS84 decimal degrees) "Depth" = Depth of station (m) "Sentivit" = Sensitivity subset "Sampling_a" = Sampling area (cm2) "Sieve_mesh" = Sive mesh size (microm) "BQI" = Benthic quality index value "Data sourc" = Source of data (national monitoring / other) "Data_origi" = Data providing organization "Country" = Data providing country "Assessment" = HELCOM Level 2 assessment unit where the station resides

This dataset describes fishing effort (hours/c-square) for mobile bottom-contacting gear in third 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.