Baltic Sea

The Baltic Sea

An unusual sea for everybody

Text and photos Agata Turowicz

Cold, dark and mysterious – the Baltic Sea is an unusual and one of a kind sea in the world. The uniqueness of the Baltic Sea is due to the fact that it was created only 12 000 years ago, which makes it the youngest sea on Earth. During the formation process, the Baltic Sea was interchangeably a sea and a lake. It got the shape as we know it today only 3 000 years ago.

Geographical location and a large inflow of fresh water from rivers and rainfall are responsible for another feature distinguishing the Baltic Sea – it is the sea with the freshest water on our planet. The average salinity of the seas and oceans is approximately 35 ‰ while the waters of the Baltic Sea have an average value of 7‰.

Thanks to both these features, for researchers the Baltic Sea is a great object for research and observation of the changes that may occur in the new seas. For divers it is a great place to explore unusual and unique waters.

The Baltic Sea is a treasure trove of history and a paradise for divers loving explorations of the wrecks. Low salinity, relatively cold water and a small amount of epiphytes allow to keep ship wrecks at the bottom of the Baltic Sea in a virtually intact state. It is there, between the islands of Gotland and Olandia, that the Swedish expedition, exploring the sea bed with a sonar, found a wreck sinking of which dated back to the fourteenth century. The turbulent history of the region of Europe, in which the Baltic Sea is located, meant that at its bottom only in the very Polish zone lie about a thousand of watercrafts.

However, not only the wreck diving enthusiasts can find their favorite places there. The Baltic water is home to many unique organisms. It is here that you can meet cousins of seahorses, i.e. a broadnose and a straighnose pipefish, which, in order to remain safe, with their shape and behavior resemble the sea grass in which they live. In shallow waters we can often observe a shoal of three-spined sticklebacks which, if we are lucky, will show us in their blue and red mating colors. At the rocky bottoms we can easily see round gobies building their nests and various species of crabs crawling on the bottom in search of food. We can dive among the hats of harmless jellyfish floating in the briny. The trained eye of a diver will certainly notice the almost transparent shrimps hiding in the rocks or among the Baltic Sea vegetation. And this is just one of the many animals that are worth seeing in the Baltic Sea.

The Baltic Sea hides many secrets waiting to be discovered. Everyone will find something for themselves. Both: the amateurs of wreck diving and divers loving underwater life. To experience a wonderful adventure, let yourself immerse in the Baltic Sea waters and enjoy its unique beauty.