The Baltic Sea (Ref 1), in northernmost Europe covers 163,000 square miles or about the same size as California and extends slightly more than 1,000 miles in length. As an extended arm of the north Atlantic Ocean, it has served as a maritime highway for exploration, warfare and commerce. Despite its extreme northern location between 60 and 70 degrees of latitude, it has an ameliorated climate (due largely to the northern extent of the relatively warm North Atlantic drift whose moisture-laden air characteristically is transported over the Baltic area by the prevailing westerlies) and has been an important water body in the human occupance of the region since recorded time.
The terms Nordic and Baltic have been used heavily (Ref 2) in describing this region but for this discussion the term Baltic Region will refer essentially to the drainage area that contributes to the Baltic Sea (Ref 3) and comprises all or parts of Finland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Denmark and Sweden. Should the boundary of the Baltic be pushed further west, then Norway might also be considered as a contributing member.
The Baltic Sea (Ref 4) has relatively poor circulation and has suffered a rather high polution rate, so much so that about one-third of the sea is considered biologically dead or at least in a high degree of biologic dormancy. Inasmuch as it is relatively shallow, landfast ice is a navigational wintertime problem in the northern extensions of the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland (Ref 5).
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