How is the Baltic Sea doing, and what lies in its future?

November 22, 2023

HELCOM (the Baltic Marine Environment  Protection Commission) published its third holistic assessment of the  Baltic Sea (HOLAS) examining the  state of the ecosystem health of the Baltic Sea between 2016-2021. 

HOLAS is a comprehensive, holistic assessment  of the state of the Baltic Sea. It assesses the total impacts on the sea  focusing on five thematic areas: biodiversity, eutrophication,  hazardous substances, economic and social analyses, as well as spatial  analyses of pressures and impacts.    

The message of the  assessment does not give us much to celebrate: the assessment shows only little or no improvement in the state of the sea. The assessment is done using almost 60 different indicators that show the pressures on the sea and the state of its biodiversity. All three assessed categories of  pressures on the sea – eutrophication, hazardous substances, and commercial fishing – are on an unsustainable level or have not decreased enough. 

Read the full report: https://stateofthebalticsea.helcom.fi/