Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission Monitoring and Assessment Group (MONAS) MONAS 20-2014, 3-1 Oslo, Norway, 8-10 April 2014 Document title Modification of the division of Archipelago Sea in the HELCOM division of sub-basins and coastal areas Code 3-1 Category CMNT Agenda Item 3 – Information by the Contracting Parties and Observer Organizations Submission date 19.3.2014 Submitted by Finland Reference Background HELCOM Monitoring and Assessment Strategy describes (in its attachment 4) the HELCOM sub-divisions, which divide the Baltic Sea on four hierarchical scales to assessment units, allowing a nested approach for regional monitoring and assessment purposes. The Monitoring and Assessment Strategy was adopted by the Copenhagen Ministerial Meeting in 2013. According to the sub-division (see Figure 2 in Attachment 1 below), the Archipelago Sea coastal area (number 9) and the Northern Baltic Proper Finnish coastal area (number 10) are two separate coastal areas in two separate sub-basins (the former in Åland Sea and the latter in the Northern Baltic Proper). Both the coastal areas, however, belong to Finnish coastal waters under the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) and are considered as same entity from the Finnish perspective in the monitoring, assessment and management purposes. Similarly, on the northern side of the Archipelago Sea, a part of the HELCOM coastal area ‘Bothnian Sea Finnish coastal area’ (number 5) belongs to the Åland coastal watersand Archipelago Sea coastal waters as defined in the WFD. Therefore, Finland proposes that: 1. the subdivision “Åland Sea” is modified to include also the “Northern Baltic Proper Finnish coastal area” (number 10) and this area is merged with the “Archipelago Sea coastal area”; 2. the border between the sub-basins ‘Åland Sea’ and ‘Bothnian Sea’ is delineated according to the WFD coastal water types. See attachment 1 (Figure 1) for illustration. In addition, Finland proposes that the sub-basin “Åland Sea” is renamed as “Åland Sea and Archipelago Sea”. Action required The Meeting is invited to agree on the modification of the sub-basin boundary. Page 1 of 4 MONAS 20-2014, 3-1 Attachment 1 Figure 1. Details of the proposed change. The proposed HELCOM sub-basin ‘Åland Sea and Archipelago Sea’ is coloured as pink. The current HELCOM sub-basin ‘Åland Sea’ is delineated by the black boundaries. This document proposes that the sub-basin area follows the coloured area instead of the black boundaries. Figure 2. Map of the Baltic Sea presenting the HELCOM sub- division into 17 open sub-basins and 42 coastal areas. The names of the open sea areas and coastal areas are provided in Tables 1 and 2, respectively. EEZs of the countries are shown with a grey dashed line. Page 2 of 4 MONAS 20-2014, 3-1 Table 1. Names of open sea sub-basins of the Baltic Sea Kattegat Great Belt The Sound Kiel Bay Bay of Mecklenburg Arkona Basin Bornholm Basin Gdansk Basin Eastern Gotland Basin Western Gotland Basin Gulf of Riga Northern Baltic Proper Gulf of Finland Åland Sea [changed to Åland Sea and Archipelago Sea] Bothnian Sea The Quark Bothnian Bay Table 2. Codes and names of the coastal water areas 1 Bothnian Bay Finnish Coastal waters 2 Bothnian Bay Swedish Coastal waters 3 The Quark Finnish Coastal waters 4 The Quark Swedish Coastal waters 5 Bothnian Sea Finnish Coastal waters 6 Bothnian Sea Swedish Coastal waters 7 Åland Sea Finnish Coastal waters 8 Åland Sea Swedish Coastal waters 9 Archipelago Sea Coastal waters 10 Northern Baltic Proper Finnish Coastal waters 11 Northern Baltic Proper Swedish Coastal waters 12 Northern Baltic Proper Estonian Coastal waters 13 Gulf of Finland Finnish Coastal waters 14 Gulf of Finland Estonian Coastal waters 15 Gulf of Finland Russian Coastal waters 16 Gulf of Riga Estonian Coastal waters 17 Gulf of Riga Latvian Coastal waters 18 Western Gotland Basin Swedish Coastal waters 19 Eastern Gotland Basin Estonian Coastal waters 20 Eastern Gotland Basin Latvian Coastal waters 21 Eastern Gotland Basin Lithuanian Coastal waters 22 Eastern Gotland Basin Swedish Coastal waters 23 Eastern Gotland Basin Russian Coastal waters 24 Eastern Gotland Basin Polish Coastal waters 25 Gdansk Basin Russian Coastal waters 26 Gdansk Basin Polish Coastal waters 27 Bornholm Basin Swedish Coastal waters 28 Bornholm Basin Polish Coastal waters 29 Bornholm Basin Danish Coastal waters 30 Bornholm Basin German Coastal waters 31 Arkona Basin Swedish Coastal waters Page 3 of 4 MONAS 20-2014, 3-1 32 Arkona Basin Danish Coastal waters 33 Arkona Basin German Coastal waters 34 Mecklenburg Bight German Coastal waters 35 Mecklenburg Bight Danish Coastal waters 36 Kiel Bight Danish Coastal waters 37 Kiel Bight German Coastal waters 38 Belts Danish Coastal waters 39 The Sound Swedish Coastal waters 40 The Sound Danish Coastal waters 41 Kattegat Swedish Coastal waters 42 Kattegat Danish Coastal waters, including Limfjorden Page 4 of 4 .