Economic aspects

The Baltic Sea is no longer the major highway of trade that it was in the Middle Ages, when it flourished as the main means of communication between the ports (Lübeck, Rostock, Visby, and Gdańsk) of the Hanseatic League. The German Hansa merchants traded mainly in fish, notably salted herring and stockfish (dried cod from Norway and Iceland), and also in softwood timber for shipbuilding, hemp for ropes, flax for sailcloth, and grain. Forest products included honey and furs, notably from Russia and Finland, as well as Stockholm tar and amber, the latter being a semiprecious commodity. Overfishing of herring, the opening up of trade to the Americas and the Caribbean following the European Age of Discovery (mid-15th to mid-16th century), and the increase in the size of sailing ships led to the decline of the Hanseatic League. Copenhagen, however, continued to prosper on the profits from tolls exacted from passing shipping, until tolls were abolished in 1857.

The construction of the Kiel Canal in the late 19th century and the development of railways and highways in the 20th century began to change the nature of trade and transport across the Baltic Sea. World War II also brought political and economic change to the region, and traditional trading patterns were amended accordingly. In the 21st century the number of ocean vessels sailing around Jutland is only a fraction of that of earlier decades. Instead, there has been an increase in Baltic Sea crossings by large roll-on, roll-off ferries and fast hovercraft, hydrofoils, and catamarans. There are many such linkages, the busiest being between Helsingør, Denmark, and Helsingborg, Sweden.

Bulk cargoes of oil and coal still come by all water routes into the Baltic, and many exports of minerals, timber, and wood products move in the opposite direction by sea around Jutland. These traditional exports represent a diminishing value in overall trade. The greatest values are in consumer goods, most of which are carried in containers by integrated land and sea transport to markets and to and from the North Sea ports of Hamburg, Germany, and Rotterdam, Netherlands. This has led to increased interest in building a bridge between Denmark and Sweden. Shipbuilding has declined in Sweden but has continued in Poland and Finland (especially for ice-strengthened vessels); marine engines are produced in Denmark. Generally, however, light engineering, high-quality furniture production, and motor-vehicle manufacturing have replaced many of these maritime-based industries.

Fishing in the Baltic is less important than in the past. Most of the catch consists of herring, cod, and sprats followed by smaller quantities of eel, salmon, and shellfish. The Baltic has been divided into national zones for fishing, with the bulk of the catch coming from the southern sector and from the Kattegat. Similarly, the seabed has been divided among the Baltic countries, and exploration for hydrocarbons has taken place especially off the eastern shore.

Vacationers have long enjoyed the pleasures of the Baltic coast, but in the early 21st century its expanses of white sand beaches and quaint seaside towns grew increasingly popular with tourists. Among the most-visited resort towns are Rønne, Denmark, on Bornholm island; Ystad, Sweden; Pärnu, Estonia; Sopot, Poland; Liepāja and Jūrmala, Latvia; and Palanga and Klaipėda, Lithuania.

Study and exploration

The Vikings began opening the Baltic to trade in the 8th century ad, and since then the historic events of the region have been related to attempts at controlling the sea. Swedish expansion from the 12th to the 17th century relied on shipbuilding and sea power, and the basis of the Danish empire was its ability to command the straits through the Danish archipelago. The prosperity of the Hanseatic League arose when German Baltic ports provided alternative trade gateways to the Danish straits.

The intensity of the use of the Baltic for seafaring has been matched by equally intensive scientific research. The sea’s hydrologic and chemical properties were among the first to be studied systematically. Because of its status as a semienclosed sea—with stratified water columns, low water temperatures, a slow circulation pattern, and much runoff from coastal and river areas with high concentrations of population and industry—the Baltic has been recognized as ecologically vulnerable. The focus of much research has been on monitoring such pollution indicators as oxygen depletion in the deep basins and the concentration of harmful substances in aquatic birdlife. Threats to unique regional flora and fauna have led to cooperation among Baltic countries on environmental protection.

As early as the 1950s, environmental scientists in the Baltic region became aware of environmental degradation resulting from large-scale industrial development and chemical runoffs from agriculture. This awareness led to the 1974 signing by Baltic countries of the Helsinki Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area, an agreement that was put into effect in 1980, revised in 1992, and reimplemented in 2000. The Helsinki Convention was one of the first international attempts to control land-based sources of pollution in a shared marine environment. Although some significant improvements in pollution control have been achieved, particularly in the Scandinavian countries, it is difficult to determine how much these improvements can be attributed to the institutions established under the Helsinki Convention.

In the early 21st century, environmental concerns complicated plans to build an undersea natural-gas pipeline that would deliver Russian gas to western Europe. Construction of the pipeline, which when completed will link Vyborg, Russia, and Greifswald, Germany, finally began in 2010.