Press release
HELCOM biodiversity assessment indicates increasing human pressure on biotopes and species around the Baltic
Helsinki, 9 June (HELCOM Information Service). The Helsinki Commission for the protection of Baltic marine environment today released the first integrated thematic assessment on biodiversity and nature conservation in the Baltic Sea, covering an assessment of the status of biodiversity and human pressures impacting it. The biodiversity assessment also contains recommendations on how to reach the targets of the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan to radically reduce pollution to the marine environment and restore its good ecological status of by 2021.
The results of the assessment show that the management of human activities in the Baltic Sea is still far from satisfactory. Overall, eutrophication and fisheries stand out as the two most prominent human pressures behind observed changes especially in the communities in the Baltic Sea offshore areas. Climate-driven changes in salinity and sea-surface temperature, as well as deep-bottom oxygen depletion, have enhanced the negative impacts of eutrophication and fisheries during recent decades. In the coastal areas, physical disturbance, such as construction works and the almost ubiquitous human impact, add significant stress on the biota.
“According to the assessment, there are currently 59 species that are considered as threatened or declining in the Baltic Sea,” says Anne Christine Brusendorff, HELCOM’s Executive Secretary. “The only known species extirpated in recent decades is the sturgeon. All marine mammals are under threat or in decline, at least in some parts of the Baltic. The largest single group of threatened or declining species is fish and lampreys, which includes 23 species.”
Nearly all of the Baltic’s top predators, including marine mammals and several bird species, still suffer from pollution, fisheries’ by-catch and habitat destruction. The population of harbour porpoises, especially in the Baltic Proper, is in a precarious state and continues to decline. The grey seal population has increased steadily since 1988. But the recovery of grey seals south of 59°N, where they were regularly present before they were hunted to extirpation in the beginning of the 20th century, is still very slow. The status of ringed seals is still unfavorable. Among the nine species of birds assessed, a long-term population decline is evident for dunlin, as well as a recent decline for Steller’s eider and long-tailed duck.
“Fish communities are currently out of balance in several areas of the Baltic Sea. Some of the commercially important fish stocks in the Baltic Sea are currently exploited in excess of safe biological limits”, says Brusendorff. “This overfishing can put entire marine ecosystems under pressure by changing their fish composition and predator-prey ratios.” Overfishing of Baltic cod is currently a particularly serious problem.
At the same time there have been several positive signs for Baltic fish in recent times. These include, amongst others, an improvement in the natural smolt production of certain northern salmon river populations, improvement of sea trout populations in the western Baltic, significant improvement in the smelt stock in the Gulf of Riga. These improvements are results of various measures to improve the environment of the Baltic Sea during recent decades.
As described in the assessment report all biotopes/habitats around the Baltic Sea area are to some degree threatened or declining today. Many of these areas are important habitats for rare or endangered species. The poor environmental status of habitats has implications far beyond the local scale because they are important living, feeding, reproduction and nursing environments for associated flora and fauna.
About 120 non-native, alien species have been recorded in the Baltic Sea since the early 19th century. Most of the observed alien species, however, have not yet become invasive and have, in fact, enriched the species and functional biodiversity of the Baltic Sea. Nevertheless, new introductions pose a threat to the entire ecosystem and its functions, and the risk of new invasions remains high.
Protected areas in the Baltic Sea provide a tool for protecting the Baltic Sea biodiversity but according to the current assessment the existing network of Baltic Sea protected areas provides insufficient protection and is not ecologically coherent.
The assessment is intended to provide a baseline for measuring progress towards the goals, objectives, and targets identified in the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan.
Follow-up:
An integrated thematic assessment on biodiversity and nature conservation in the Baltic Sea http://www.helcom.fi/stc/files/Publications/Proceedings/bsep116B.pdf
Executive Summary http://www.helcom.fi/stc/files/Publications/Proceedings/bsep116A.pdf
Note to Editors:
The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission, usually referred to as the Helsinki Commission, or HELCOM, is an intergovernmental organisation of all the nine Baltic Sea countries and the EU which works to protect the marine environment of the Baltic Sea from all sources of pollution.
HELCOM is the governing body of the "Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area," known as the Helsinki Convention.
For more information, please contact:
Mr. Nikolay Vlasov
Information Secretary
HELCOM
Tel: +358 (0)207 412 635
Fax: +358 (0)207 412 639
E-mail: nikolay.vlasov@helcom.fi