Gulf of Finland still in bad shape

Eutrophication increases, many parts of sea bottom dead

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The ecological state of the Gulf of Finland remains very poor. Eutrophication of shoreline waters has increased from last year, and deep parts of the sea are largely dead.
      Thousands of square kilometres of sea bottom have been depleted of oxygen, where there is virtually no life, with the exception of some bacteria.
      The marine research vessels Muikku and Aranda have returned from their two-week sample-taking voyages. The studies yielded troubling information about the state of the Gulf of Finland and the whole Baltic Sea.
      The voyage of the Muikku revealed that the eutrophication level is much higher in the Gulf of Finland now than it was in 2003. This was reflected in large blooms of blue-green algae in early August.
     
Limnologist Seppo Knuuttila of the Finnish Environment institute says that there was between 100 and 400 times more blue-green algae throughout the Gulf of Finland than there was last year.
      "Although there were no large rafts of algae floating on the surface, there was very much blue-green algae mixed in the water as deep as 20 metres", says the head of the Muikku voyage.
      Now the blue-green algae has benefited from large amounts of phosphates that were stored up in the water. Powerful storms last winter mixed the waters, releasing many nutrients that had been lying on the bottom.
      The winter storms also had beneficial effects: especially in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland, they mixed the various layers of water, bringing more oxygen to the bottom.
      However, the increased oxygen did not manage to revive the areas of the sea bottom that are dead. Only five out of 45 areas that were tested revealed thriving and diverse life on the bottom.
      "The state of fauna populations on the bottom has not improved at all. Their recovery would require long-term improvements in the oxygen situation", Knuuttila says.
     
Researchers on the Aranda found that the oxygen situation in other parts of the Baltic Sea was also quite bad.
      According to Juha Flinkman, special researcher at the Finnish Institute of Marine Research, there is no oxygen at depths of 70 metres or more.
      The recent flooding in Finland brought more nutrients into the sea, especially the Gulf of Finland.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Blue-green algae hits shores in east of Gulf of Finland (6.8.2003)
  Water quality in Gulf of Finland deteriorates alarmingly from last year (11.8.2003)
  Expedition detects little life at bottom of Gulf of Finland (9.6.2003)
  The Gulf of Finland is in poor shape (10.6.2002)

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