TOPIC 1

ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS IN
EUROPE.

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 1. ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS IN EUROPE.

The environmental protection has become one of the great challenges that the international
community faces at the moment.
The necessity to eliminate or to mitigate, and more urgently to avoid the contamination of marine
and terrestrial waters, to protect the ozone layer, to prevent the disappearance of plant and animal
species and to restrain the erosion and ground degradation, by single mentioning some of the main
problems, are subjects to which the world must find urgent solution to assure the existence of future
generations as well as a greater life quality.

1. ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS IN SPAIN:

· Spanish Mediterranean environmental problems:

Main environmental problems:

Contamination of fresh and marine waters by the disposal of industrial, farming and
domestic waste

Main causes:

-The little knowledge of the properties of the sources and polluting centres to the aquatic
environment.
-The frequent pouring of pollutants to the aquatic environment, such as substances from the
industrial, farming and domestic activities.
-The non-existence of efficient waste treatment systems.
-The limited possibilities of performance within the legal frame to apply effective sanctions.
-The low level of priority granted to the environmental dimension within the development plans.

The damage of the water quality in our country is very remarkable, due to the little purification,
the little circulating volume and the irregularity of these volumes.
The water quality is dramatically influenced in the channels next to the great cities; the cause of
the degradation of the water quality is mainly due to urban and industrial spills.

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 Indirect sea contamination
The main polluting agents of the underground water are heavy nitrates, metals, hydrocarbons and
pesticides. Around 15% of the Spanish cities have supplying waters that overpass 50 mg/L nitrates
concentration.
The generalized use of nitrates and phosphates in the agricultural and cattle operations has
introduced strong levels of contamination in the water. The more affected zones correspond to the
Mediterranean coast, a part of the river basin of the Guadiana and the island of Majorca. The river
basin of the Júcar (Valencia) is the one that is more affected, because of the intensive agricultural
operations.

 Direct contamination of the sea

Approximately half of the substances that contaminate the seas have terrestrial origin and reach
directly the sea through the spills or introduced by the rivers. Around a third of these substances
come from atmospheric contributions and only a fourth little one has its origin in the sea.
Therefore, the future control of the contamination of the marine surroundings depends
fundamentally on the limitation of the terrestrial contamination sources located in most of the cases
in the coastal regions. Other problems are:

• the nutrients (phosphates and nitrates) that produce local eutrophication processes influence the
growth of the seaweed, the disappearance of oxygen, the death in mass of the marine animals and
the diminution of the tourism.
- The lack of urban waste water treatment plants, mainly, in the Mediterranean.
- The heavy metals and the organic compounds coming from industrial plants.
- The petroleum spills due to accidents, flights, cleaning of tanks and shipwrecks represent
until a million annual tons.

 Loss of areas of young and natural ecosystems of aquatic species:

Main causes:

- The great reduction of the entrance of natural nutrients to the areas of young species of great
commercial importance as the shrimp.
- The high levels of drought caused by the global climatic change.
- The contamination by the pouring of residual terrestrial and oily substances.
- The destruction caused by the fishing arts that are pierced on the coralline barriers.

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 Destruction of the ozone layer by the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFC´s)

Main causes:

The high harmfulness for the conservation of the ozone layer implies the use of cooling gases like
CFCs, which comprise important of the technology used in our refrigeration plants. The CFCs were
widely spread without regulation until principle of 80´s decade.

By the 70’s and 80’s, the scientists began to discover that the human activity was having a
negative impact on the ozone layer. This layer is being affected by the increasing use of (CFCs,
chloro-fluorine compounds), that are used in refrigeration, air conditioned, cleaning solvents and
aerosols.

All these products contain chlorine, which attacks the ozone that is formed by three oxygen atoms,
snatching to him one of them to form chlorine monoxide. This one reacts next with oxygen atoms to
form oxygen molecules, releasing chlorine molecules that disturb more ozone molecules.
The thinning of the ozone layer exposes to the terrestrial life to an excess of ultraviolet radiation
that can produce skin cancer between others, to reduce the answer of the immune system, to
interfere in the plant photosynthesis process and affect the growth of the oceanic phytoplankton.

Due to the increasing threat of these dangerous effects in the environment, some countries are
working on a project to suppress the manufacture and use of the CFCs. However, the CFCs can
remain in the atmosphere for more than 100 years, reason why the ozone destruction will continue
representing a threat during decades.

 Erosion of our coasts (construction, tourism)

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 One of the great assets of Spain is their coasts, and their beach tourism. Almost in the 8.000 km
of the Spanish coast live more than 24 million inhabitants, near 60% of the population, where you
have to add about 50 million tourists who enjoy the coastal attractiveness every year. The tourism
has consolidated like the first sector of our economy. Nevertheless, this situation could change
dramatically.

Ecologists, scientific groups and institutions have alerted on the progressive deterioration of the
Spanish coasts, affected by serious erosion problems, destruction of the habitats, water
contamination and exploitation of the resources.

Ecological institutions, in its report "Destruction at all costs 2004", complain against the city-
planning development attributable to the tourism, which does not consider the fragility of the
ecosystems. Moreover, it increases the problem of the waters contamination, the over capture and
the possible depletion of the water-bearing, accentuating therefore the human concentration and
generation of remainders.
This report complains as well against the continuous aggression that undergoes, the coast
diminishing the quality of the tourist supply, and the erosion undergone in but of 10% of Spanish
beaches emphasizing an elevated degree of erosion in beaches from Andalucia, Comunidad
Valenciana, Islas Baleares and Cantabria.

Source: National Geographic Institute

In the Spanish coasts are around 768000 houses and hotel seats in project.

Although the Coasts Law of 1988 supposed a radical change to the previous 1969 legislation, to
count on a more protectionist approach for environment regulates at the present time the space of
the Spanish coast, Organizations as Greenpeace and WWF/Adena describe as insufficient the
protectionist approach of this law since recently they are continued urbanizing coasts without taking
into account the generated environmental damage.

Possible solutions:

To restrain the problem of coastal operation, the Administration must contemplate a series of
measures, like the expropriation of critical areas implied in erosive processes to allow its free
evolution, the creation of structures of coastal defence, the dismantling of artificial barriers that
prevent the transport sediment, the beach regeneration or the wide maintenance of a free one of 100
to 200 meters of the coastal front, of special way in those more delicate sections.

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 The institutions face a very delicate situation and the search of solutions that satisfy so much to
the own human necessities as to the conservation of the environment it is a complicated task.
Between the possible forms to act, the Administration must support the "sustainable tourism", that
would imply the long term planning of a tourist and real state industry that does not look for the
immediate benefit at the cost of the excessive operation of the natural resources.
- To update the existing information on characteristics of the sources and polluting centres of the
fishing industry and other organisms.

-To improve the conventional systems of primary treatment, traditionally used in the fishing
industry and to be introducing methods of technologies of outpost in the purification of residual
such as the biological treatments.

-To investigate and to put in practice, methods for the reusability of treated residual waters, in the
industrial processes or other activities for which they are classified taking care of his quality,
according to the established norms.

-To continue the performing in the fishing management system through the establishment of the
regulatory measures that contributes to guarantee an efficient sustainable use of our fishing
resources and the conservation in general of all the marine resources.

-To diagnose the zones more affected by the contamination, product of the pouring of residual
liquids and solids of the facilities of process of the fishing and to elaborate a recovery program of
these areas.

-To harness the efficient use of the water and the electrical energy in all the industrial processes and
services.

-To elaborate Environmental Education Programs directed to workers in the sector and the fishing
communities.

-To incorporate in the Plans of annual Investments of the Associations that cause affectations to the
environment, the introduction of residue treatment systems, new technologies of clean productions
and other measures to solve the environmental contamination.

· Environmental problems in Andalucian coasts

Marine Waters Contamination

The contamination is one of the greater dangers for the average sailor. Residual waters, plastic
sweepings, materials, nuclear remainders and petroleum are the polluting agents that that they
produce a great impact. So it is necessary to act.
The protection of the average sailor and his resources demands new approaches in the
conservation, arrangement and development of the sustainable advantage of such, in the regional
and local plane, as well as the fortification of the international cooperation.
The coastal zones constitute great economic and ecological resources, and attract an ample set of
human activities. The population of the urban sprawls grows continuously, which causes an increase
in the competition by the limited resources, as well as contamination, destruction of habitat and
coastal erosion. The industry, the transport (including navigation and the ports) and the urbanization
are the causes of the main environmental impacts.
The vulnerability of the coastal landscape before these developments depends on the
characteristics of the coast, the presence of habitat special and the nature of the impacts. The coastal
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plains are generally more vulnerable than the rocky coasts, and the coasts with little fluctuation of
tides, than those with tides more pronounced, mainly in which the hydrology of surface and the
underground waters talk about to contamination and the changes in.

The coastal zones have dynamic characteristics, and usually are prone to the erosion.
They also are, between the areas to which they would affect the consequences of the climatic
change more, mainly by changes in the hydrological cycles and, as it is obvious, by the elevation of
the level of the sea.

Sources of Contamination of the Andalusian Coast:

The Andalusian territory has a clear marine dimension. Its southern edge develops an ample
coastal facade whose waters are distributed between two marine river basins: the Atlantic and the
Mediterranean.

The Andalusian coast comes being, in the last decades, one of the main protagonists of economic
happening of the Andalusian Community, not only by the paper who have played the partner-
productive activities since the tourism of masses like source of regional and national entrance
prevails, but also because the future economic of the region she is bound to the one of the average
coast closely.
The denominated tourism of sun and beach, the development of agriculture or the expansion of
the aquaculture, are the main activities that have allowed this economic expansion. It has given rise
to the appearance of a series of negative impacts on the environment that have caused alterations on
the coastal ecosystems.
Although Andalusia, in statistical terms, appears as a tertiary economy by the enormous weight of
the tourism in the configuration of the regional GIP, appears next, the contribution to the
contamination of waters according to the different sectors from production.

 SECTOR 1

In the new agrarian systems, the rupture of the environmental balance is important since, when
prioritizing the productive function, has taken place the sobreoperation of water-bearing, the

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massive fertilizer use, erosion of the ground, that as well, affects of direct form the contamination of
waters and the reduction of capacity of the hydrographical river basins, by sedimentation.
On the other hand, the excessive phyto-sanitary product use, the accumulation of substances in the
ground, specially heavy metals, generate injurious substances in the harvestings or can be dragged
towards underground or superficial waters, and in last term to the coast.
The development of the aquaculture gives rise to an alteration of the affected natural ecosystems,
mainly in those true its operations that are assumption transformations of an important extension of
salt marshes.

 SECTOR 2

In spite of not being Andalusia a characteristic territory by the predominance of the industrial
sector, if we can speak of problems of contamination of channels by the spills of small and medium
agro-alimentary companies, very dispersed by the territory, whose waters come together, in last
term, in the coast Andalusian.
It is important to also consider the accumulation of mining remainders, which contributes to the
contamination of the hydro resources, superficial and underground, as a result of the washing of
minerals by the water.
The contamination of industrial origin of coastal waters in Andalusia bears direct relation to the
location from the great heavy industries basic or of elevated polluting load, or of isolated form or
forming complex industrialists.

The areas where a greater amount of polluting agents coming from industrial spills exists are:
· Surroundings of the industrial complex Bay of Algeciras.
· Surroundings of the industrial complex Bay of Cadiz.
· Surroundings of the industrial complex of Huelva.
· Something less important that in the mentioned ones previously, it is the concentration of
polluting agents, in points near as much the ports of Motril (Granada) like a the one of
Malaga, as well as in diverse zones of the Almerian coast.
As far as the transport, it is important to emphasize the spills to the sea specially caused by the
cleaning of the great oil ships, whose incidence in the Mediterranean is significant, in the zone of
the Straits, one of those of greater density of marine traffic of the world.

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 SECTOR 3

The contamination of urban origin depends on diverse factors between which they emphasize, the
infrastructure non-existence of residual water purification, still frequent in some coastal
municipalities and the size of the population centre, proportional to the emitted spills; within this
second parameter it is very important to consider the tie seasonal population to the tourism, that can
duplicate or triple the permanent population.
The presence of differents bacteries (as Escherichia coli) is demonstrative of the organic
contamination of urban origin and at the moment it is a problem that appears associated to the main
urban and tourist sprawls: Capital Huelva, Bay of Cadiz, and Bay of Algeciras, Coast of the Sun
malagueña and granadina and Bay of Almeria.

Of the extensive list of degradation problems and management, the areas of greater attention at
the present time are:
· Eutrophication: elevated contribution of nutrients through residual water spills the urban,
agriculture and aquaculture.
· Industrial Spills: contamination by heavy metals and organic compounds.
· Abusive fertilizer Use in agriculture.

Types of marine water contamination

a) microbiological Contamination
b) Contamination by heavy metals
c) Contamination by nutritious substances. Eutrophication.
d) Contamination by organochlorates and organic substances.
e) Petroleum

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 f) Aquaculture.

Next we emphasized the type of more excellent contamination in the coast Andalusian:

Fishing and agriculture:

The over captures of the fishing resources can have a remarkable impact in the marine
ecosystems, affecting to the stability and the sustainability of the marine life. The impacts can be
direct, or indirect, through the damage that they cause in the technical habitats of the marine bed as
the fishing with trawls. Also indirect effects in other species can take place, between which the birds
and the marine mammals tell themselves.
The aquaculture, that partly is being developed as an answer to the problem of the over captures,
can cause high levels of nutrients and microbiological contamination in the marine environment.

This type of areas is particularly sensible to the unloading of nutrients, antibiotics, etc., coming
from the aquaculture. The aquaculture can cause genetic alterations of the natural ecosystem,
introduction of foreign species, I infect of diseases and parasites, and contamination by chemical
agents.

The fight continued in favour of the carried out environment by certain institutions and groups is
beginning to give its fruits and the frenetic polluting race of the human species has seen braking in
the last years. Although the seas can act in some cases, like average valid receiver for certain
remainders, is not necessary to forget that present in its sine is had to take advantage of the auto
water purifier power, always making the necessary studies that they show that the performance has
a null effect on means.

AGENDA 21

Agenda 21 is a global program of action in all the areas related to the sustainable development of
the planet, approved in the Conference of the Nations United on Environment and Development,
celebrated in Rio de Janeiro in June of 1992. The Agenda demands changes in the activities of
economic development, based on a new understanding of the impact of the human behaviour on the
environment.
Therefore, the Agenda 21 Andalusia will include a set of strategic lines that the Sustainable
Development in the Community in the first decades makes cash of century XXI.
ONE IS A LETTER DIRECTED TO ONE SAME ONE AND ALL THE CITIZENS, A LETTER
FOR THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE, TRYING TO LEARN OF THE PAST.

· Environmental problems of the Biscay Bay:

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Facts:

352,000 tons of petroleum have been spilled in waters of Cantabrian in the last 40 years.
' In the last, from 1964 to date, have been spilled in waters of Cantabrian and Galicia a total of
352,866 tons of different substances, mainly petroleum and fuel, but also pesticides, chemical
agents and heavy fuel.

According to data facilitated by CC OO in days on the ' Prestigé celebrated in the Marine Museum
of the Cantabrian, the greater one of these spills was the registered one in 1976, when the Urkiola
ship spilled 101,000 tons of water petroleum of Galicia.
Another one of those of greater impact and in addition to the most remembered was the one of the
Aegean Sea, which lost 80,000 tons of petroleum in 1992. Thirdly, the spill of the Prestige is
located, that from its collapse esteem that has spilled 77,000 tons of heavy fuel.
With regards to waters of the Cantabrian, the only registered spill is the one of 300 tons of fuel
made by the ship Castle of Rooms in 1986.
In waters of Galicia also the 60,000 tons of petroleum were remarkable spilled by the Andros
Mother country in 1970, the 16,000 spilled by the Yanxilas in 1965 or the 15,000 tons of the
Polycommander in 1970.
As far as other substances, in 1970 the Erkowwitz spilled 286 tons of pesticides; and in 1987 the
Cason, 1,100 tons of chemical agents.

The Cantabrian registers inferior average temperatures to which it reached in the 50 and the 60.
The heating only begins to be significant from 2002 (detected displacements of species by the
thermal changes). The oceans are a good thermometer to measure the effects of the climatic
change. For some years the studies have been proliferating on the incidence of the global heating in
the seas.

Borja is a privileged witness of the evolution of waters of the Gulf of Biscay in the last years. As
veteran investigator of the average sailor, he has participated in the elaboration of infinity of studies.
"He is not that we have undertaken a specific investigation on the heating in the Cantabrian, but we
have collected numerous data that give a quite approximate idea us of which it is happening", it
says.

One of those data is indeed the evolution of the temperature of the water. The investigators of
Azti count on the advantage to have one of the oldest registries of the Cantabrian: the one of the
Aquarium of San Sebastián, whose foot systematic measurements of the temperature of the water of
sea are made from 1946 July. The series of marine temperatures are not as frequent as it would be
possible to think and the next reference is the one of the Museum of the Sea of Biarritz, where they
began to take in 1960.

The sample of the Aquarium is therefore of great value to analyze the thermal behaviour of the
Cantabrian. The systematization of its data puts of relief the existence of several cycles in which
ascents and slopes of temperatures are alternated. Warmest they date from principles of the fifty,
when a maximum value next to 17,5º was reached. More registered discharge in San Sebastián is
the annual average temperature. The high temperatures continued with small parentheses until
reaching the seventy, where an abrupt reduction takes place that lasts with bumps until the ninety.
The graphical one shows a significant ascent of the temperatures as of 2002. From that year the
values have grown although without reaching the maximums registered in the 50 and the 60. "If the
graph of the measurements is observed from 1947 the tendency is to lower, not to raise, although
also it is certain that we need the series of the previous decades to have a panorama the sufficiently
representative thing", says the scientist of Azti.

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 Borja indicates that the historical reconstruction of marine temperatures made by average
scientists states an evidence: the temperature of the sea stayed more or less stable until end of
century XIX. "From that time to the present time one thinks that it has raised about two or three
degrees", it needs. That heating begins to also draw itself in the average sailor. The scientist says
that the investigations of Azti state a displacement towards the north of the species that conform the
plankton. "Species that before had their habitat in the Gulf of Biscay have displaced towards
Scotland and have been replaced by organisms that were more to the south".

The same it happens with the anchovy, that before did not happen of the opening of the Loira, to
the south of Britain, and that now begins to see itself by the zone of the English Channel. "We have
also begun to detect stable populations of fish crossbow, a species that before lived in southern
waters and that as soon as it approached the Cantabrian.

2. ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS IN PORTUGAL.

There are several ambient problems in Portugal that still makes us worry. Portugal in all of his
extension, still holds some problems such as: the sonorous pollution (specially in the zone of the
great cities), the degradation of the forests and green spaces (by cutting off or by the fire that,
unfortunately, devastates our country in the summer), the inadequate treatment of the residual
waters and sewers, the water pollution and the air pollution, etc..

But, of the ambient problems that destroy our country, what worry most of the Portuguese people
are the fire and the devastation that comes with it. Is certain that the inadequate treatment of
residual water is a point that also calls the attention, however it is already a problem with a
programmed solution and already in function in several areas of our country. It fits to the
responsible entities of the remaining areas to adopt and build the so famous “E.T.A.R.” (“Estação
de Tratamento de Águas Residuais” - Residual Waters Treatment Station) that will solute the
problem. But is specially the fire that worry us so much and with the increasing climatic changes of
the world and clearly, due to the ozone layer and the problem of the “greenhouse effect”, Portugal
has become, in the summer, in a very hot country, with temperatures going up to 40ºC (104ºF).
It is with these high temperatures and also with the lack of care by people, when leaving garbage
and lighted cigarettes in the forests or bushes to unchain a fire or even by badness that this problem
is so familiar and we feel it so deeply.

Every year, great part of our green territory is destroyed and

with the fire also disappears some species of important plants in
our ecosystems. But other two problems that are common to us is
the water and air pollution. In water is because the illegal
discharges of factories in lagoons, dams, rivers or even in the
Portuguese coast. About the rivers, we can take by example the
“Trancão River” (Sacavém – Lisbon) which was polluted for
several years because of illegal discharges of near factories.
Fig. 1 – Fire in the Montejunto
However, nowadays, it was cleaned but because of the amount of Mountain – summer of 2002
negligence through all of these years, it will take lots of time to
the river to be fully recovered.

About the air pollution, there are laws for factories to put
filters in their chimneys, but the individualism of people, the
stressed up life of the urban beings, the egocentrism of people
is more notable and with that comes more particular cars in

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Fig. 2 – Trancão River – Sacavém

spite of using the public transportation. Portugal, about that matter is getting some improvement,
turning the trips more accessible and comfortable, with good conditions, so in that way, making life
a little bit easier for the Portuguese population.

Fig. 3 – Sewer in the Trancão River

There are, in the Moita zone, some buses with an ecological diesel made with
the used fried oil that is used in the kitchens, which, afterwards is treated and
transformed into this kind of fuel “biodiesel”, which will make a huge revolution
in the fuel industry. But for now is just a pioneer process and it’s not available for
everybody, only the autarchy public transports can use it, but we hope and in a
recent future, the all country can use it, and then, perhaps the world too.
Portugal

Fig. 4 – Oil

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3. ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEM IN BELGIUM.

Description and characteristics of the Belgian coast

The coast is constituted by a rectilinear band of sea, by beaches of sand and by dunes. Situated
just behind the coast, polders are very flat and very fertile grounds, which, formerly regularly
covered by the ocean, are reclaimed and protected at the moment from strong tides by a system of
locks.

FACTS
Length of the Belgian coast
Surface area of the Belgian part of the North Sea 3600 km² (That is 0,5 % from the North Sea)
Depth of Belgian waters
Number of ships crossing the Channel
66 km
20-30 m Let be a very weak depth
(On average + or - 100m)
Problems bound to sandbanks
200.000 to 300.000 per year
Very important traffic (+ or - 250 a day for the
Belgian coast)
Problems bound to the discharges of
hydrocarbon

The environmental problems of the Belgian coast and the North Sea

 The Tourism.

The tourism is a precious branch of industry. Every year, some 17 to 18 million day tourists (that
is an increase of about 60 % of the population in period of vacancy) go on the Flemish beaches.
Regrettably it exercises an impact on the environment.

 Impact on dunes.

Because of the building of apartments, beach pavilions, the lay out of dykes and camping sites,
the beaches and the dunes have had a lot to bear. Rare plant species (As the salicorne, the common
hélianthème, the pimprenelle, the common serpolet, the aspérule in the esquinancie and the tilted
silène. aquatic mint, of the épilobe and the common purple loosestrife) and bird species (As the
madman of Bassan, the guillemot of Troïl, the grebe, the caugek tern) disappear; the coast has lost
its "natural" appeal. In the meantime, different measures have been taken, including the Dune
Decree, in order to protect the remaining dunes. There is a building prohibition and some dune areas
have been closed. Some areas are close throughout the whole year, others only during the brooding
period.

Thanks to these measures, some split zones were able to keep a natural aspect (as the Zwin 220 ha
and the Westhoek 660 ha) grouping together up to 1170 ha. Pedestrian tracks and cycling roads take
us to the discovery of this nature.

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 Discharges of domestic effluents

The pollution of the Belgian coast is of also a consequence of the draining of urban water
residues. Our water-treatment plants have difficulties facing this abrupt increase of the population in
the holiday-maker period. And thus numerous organic substances are freed in the maritime
environment. If some of them degrade rather effectively, on the other hand the more persevering
compounds are distributed on big zones and accumulate in the bodies.

 The dredging.

Exploitation of the sand and the little stones

Sand is an essential raw material for building houses and other buildings and constructing roads.
In the past, sand extraction mostly took place on land, but in the last 20 years the sea has become
another major source of sand for the sand extraction industry. Marine sand extraction is mostly
carried out with a hopper dredger, a vessel that extracts the sand from the seabed with a suction
pipe.

You cannot imagine how many grains of sand these vessels 'vacuum cleaners' collect every year.
The annual figure of sand which we, Europeans, remove from the maritime bottom is 100 million
tons. That is, approximately 7 in 9 tons of sand or a lorry a year.

Environmental impacts.

-Overhang of the sea:

A coast is supposed to be in balance and the offshore zone interacts with the bank. The fact of
digging a hole is going to change the bathymétrie (the level of sea bed) whose width could modify
the effect of waves: the energy of the swell (waves) could be amplified and waves will become
erosive, even devastating and we could attend the disappearance of beaches and the headway
(overhang) of the sea. This imbalance can modify the structure of sandbanks and so destroy the
natural defence of coasts.

-Consequences on the full of fish life:

On the sea bed we find zones of laying eggs for several maritime species. They can be inhaled by
one of these huge vacuum cleaners with which boats exploit the sand and thus the dredging has
consequences on the full of fish life.

-The cloud in sea

When we operate a dredging in the sea the fine fraction (fine sediments) are put in suspension and
it is going to activate a sedimentary transport in panache (a cloud in sea). This last one is going to
prevent the penetration of the sun light in the column of water and consequently the photosynthetic
activity decreases and it is the whole ecology which is afterwards affected.

 Hydrocarbons.

If we of had to list the most murderous accidents which our Belgian coast knew, it is that of
Tricolor that has to be mentioned first. In a collision, this ship poured 200 m3 of diesel oil and 25
tons of oil of lubrication into the sea. 9177 birds were so rejected on the bank. We can also suppose
that many birds went out slowly to the sea (some people estimate the number of birds which died at

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35.000). Besides, the numerous sea birds which were thrown back on the bank or the beaches were
stuck under a black mud. The cleaning of the mud cost approximately 900.000 Euro.

Moreover, there are the illegal discharges / dumping of the ships which continue to be worrisome.
Tablecloths of hydrocarbons are always detected in the big shipping lanes in the North Sea,
although generally speaking, their frequency and their volume seem to have fallen.

Number (blue) and total volume (red – m³) operational discharges of hydrocarbon observed by the
surveillance airplane in the period 1991-2003. In orange, the declining trend of the last 13 years.

 Others agents of pollution.

The sea is the final bowl in which – carried along by rivers - the atmosphere or the direct
discharges, the pollutants stemming from activities which the man exercises on the ground, even in
hundreds of kilometres of coasts arrive At least 80 % of the maritime pollution result from these
ground activities.
So several thousand substances meet in the sea and thus turn out very dangerous as for example,
dioxins, mercury, cadmium, phosphor, arsenic, copper, radioactive substances etc. The "dangerous"
qualifier means that these substances are toxic, degrade only very slowly and accumulate in the
tissues of the maritime bodies.
The oil platforms and the gas pipelines are also agents of pollution because they are both
subjected to miscellaneous damages which can engender some incidents and put in danger our sea
and “its inhabitants ".

 The exotic species.

Every year a number of non-indigenous animals and plants arrive in the North Sea. They are
known as 'exotic species'. These species are brought in from all over the world via aquaculture and
shipping, on hulls or in the ballast water of ships.

The distribution area of indigenous species is shrinking considerably as a result of the competition
from exotic plants and animals or a changing habitat. Some exotic plants and animals are even
becoming a nuisance. These are referred to as invasive species. The common slipper limpet
(Crepidula fornicata), which was imported with oysters from America at the end of the 19th
century, became a real pest for local oyster breeding. However, there are no known cases of species
disappearing in the North Sea as a result of the introduction of an exotic species, although this is the
case in fresh water environments and estuaries.

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 The reproduction of our species may also be threatened by exotic plants and animals. The
American and indigenous lobster can mate, but their offspring are sterile.

We may think that the introduced species increase biodiversity, but the newcomers are usually fast
growing species that are able to withstand disturbance and pollution. They feel very much at home
in environments that are created by man or that are heavily influenced by man, such as harbours and
coastal areas. There, numerous artificial hard substrata are constructed or we find areas that have
been greatly impoverished and uniformised as a result of huge fishing pressure. Such areas are
therefore highly suitable for relatively undemanding immigrants which displace the indigenous
species. Consequently, there is a worldwide risk that marine flora and fauna will become similar
and the differences blurred. So, even if introduced species may result in greater diversity locally, on
a worldwide scale they may lead to the impoverishment of biodiversity.

There is also a real danger that exotic plants and animals bring with them all sorts of associated
organisms and diseases, to which the indigenous species are not immune. For instance, oysters from
Japan brought a single-cell parasite that is harmful to indigenous oysters. The introduction of micro-
organisms, such as species of phytoplankton, can cause toxic plankton blooms, making oysters or
mussels unfit for consumption.

The measures taken against these pollutions

The fight against the pollution in hydrocarbons is a high priority. On average, the draining produces
four times so much oil in sea as the accidents. To keep the North Sea alive, the federal State leads a
politics of zero tolerance as regards the criminals of the oil. Planes, satellites and Belgica watch our
coasts and use mobile radars which strictly control boats.

17
4. ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS IN POLAND.

The problem of the ecology and environmental protection hadn’t been noticed in Poland for years.
The socialist government did not touch on that matter as it did not exist. Only in 1989-1991 as a
result of political transformation the truth about a catastrophic state of Polish environment had been
disclosed. The new government had created institutions which were in charge of controlling
ecological problems.
In spite of actions that had been taken, the distance between the importance that the other
European countries pay to environmental policy and Poland was so huge, that during EU
negotiations (over 10 years after bringing down the communism), the matter of environmental
protection was the most difficult subject.
After joining the European Union and accepting European environmental policy, Poland has to
face the challenge and put it into the practice. It is the task for general public, not only for
government.
However, the awareness and the level of environmental knowledge of the Polish are still low and
are caused by long – lasting neglect in Environmental Education. That is why the professional and
general education is essential.

Some examples of specific problems:

The main problems that Environmental Education has to deal with in Poland are: passive attitudes
of some Polish people and bad economical situation.
There is a huge lack of trust into ecological actions among people. They do not believe that their
individual efforts can change the situation or that others waste all their efforts. The common opinion
is that the recycled litter is mixed together after people’s attempts to file them.
The other problem is a very poor public response and commitment to ecological actions, which
are caused by lack of voluntary tradition in our country.
There is also a discrepancy between the ecological declarations and behavior. 50% of people who
claim that the environmental protection is important still do not behave ecologically. They do not
have ecological habits and still use the plastic bags, do not file the litters or batteries.
What is more, the difficult economical situation very often forces them to anti- ecological
behavior, as poaching and tree felling. Without restraining deepening poverty in some regions of
Poland the Environmental Education will never be fully successful.
The other task that should be tackled by the Environmental Education is the diversity in the level
of environmental knowledge. Important is that all Polish people should be included - both adults
and children. The research shows that the level of ecological awareness depends on age, place of
living and qualifications. The oldest people have the worst environmental knowledge and towards
them the environmental education should be directed.

18
5. ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS IN LITHUANIA.

There are lots of environmental problems conserning our lithuanian coast – 99 kilomentres of the
Baltic sea coast we, lithuanians, have. The main problems is pollutants, which is discussed very
detailed in the first part of our paper. Pollution sourses are also analyzed and overviewed in the
second part of the review.

Pollutants
 Inorganic Substances

The majority of inorganic pollutants are compounds or derivatives of nitrogen, phosphorus,

sulphur, and carbon. These pollutants include but are not restricted to:

• nitrogen, nitrates (NHx), oxides (Nox), ammonia (NH3) nitrogen fixation

• phosphorus, phosphates (Px)
• sulfates (Sox), sulphur dioxide
• carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide

They originate from point sources like industry and municipalities, and also from diffuse sources
like agriculture and traffic. Much of the inorganic pollution load from industry and municipalities
reaches the Baltic Sea via waste water drainage into the rivers. The river load accounts for 86% of
the nitrogen, 73% of the phosphorus, for example. Some of the pollution from industry also escapes
into the atmosphere through smoke stacks. The agricultural pollution load reaches the sea mainly by
surface water drainage into the rivers. Traffic contributions consist of airborne emissions of nitrogen
oxides, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide.

These pollutants serve as nutrients in the Baltic Sea: too much results in the eutrophication of
seawater. Some of the gases (e.g. carbon dioxide) also contribute to the global greenhouse effect and
ozone layer destruction.

19
 Organic Substances

Organic compounds, also called hydrocarbons, are relatively large molecules composed mainly of
carbon and hydrogen. They can also include nuclei of nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, and chlorine,
among others. Some organic compounds found in the Baltic Sea environment and identified as
potentially harmful are:

• Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT)
• Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
• Polychlorinated triphenyls (PCTs), dibenzo-dioxins (PCDDs), and dibenzo-furans (PCDFs)
• Chlorophenols
• Hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs)

Until a few years ago, DDT and PCBs were used widely as agricultural pesticides in the Baltic Sea
area. Due to uncontrolled use, large amounts of the organic toxins reached the sea, carried by wind
or by rivers. These toxins were taken up by various species of animals where they caused unusual
damage to the overall health of the animals. A region-wide ban on DDT and PCBs has been placed
into effect and recent studies have shown a significant decrease in the toxin concentrations in Baltic
wildlife.

Both agriculture and industry (primarily pulp and paper) are responsible for a large part of the
organic compound load to the Baltic Sea. Volatile organic compounds (VOC) also originate from
traffic sources.

Heavy Metals

The following metals cause the most acute damage to the Baltic marine habitat:

• Mercury (Hg)
• Cadmium (Cd)
• Lead (Pb)

Concentrations of metals are comparatively low in the open sea areas where human activities have
not yet had any alarming effects. In coastal waters, however, accumulation is evident. Maximum
levels of trace metals are found in the sediment offshore from the points of discharge of municipal

20
and industrial waste water runoff. Metals can also reach the sea by air from industrial smoke stack
discharges and traffic exhausts.

Metal concentrations at appreciable levels are found in fish in the southern part of the Gulf of
Bothnia, in the eastern end of the Gulf of Finland, in the Kattegat, and in the Gulf of Riga. Cadmium
levels in herring liver increase 5-8% per year. Toxic concentrations of trace metals interfere with the
normal metabolic processes of fish and other wildlife in the Baltic Sea. These metals can be
transferred to humans who consume the fish; the metals have adverse effects on human metabolic
processes as well.

Oil

Oil pollution in the Baltic Sea occurs from a variety of sources in many different forms, ranging
from volatile gases to thick liquid slurries. The most prevalent are:

• mineral oil spills from ships and off shore drilling platforms
• dilute oil discharges from coastal industries and municipalities
• airborne volatile hydrocarbons from fossil fuel combustion and traffic exhaust
• hydrocarbon vapours from oil terminals, and filling stations

Spills from vessels and offshore platforms contribute the most conspicuous input of oil, but
account for a significantly small part of the total marine oil pollution. Most of the oil that gets to the
Baltic comes from dilute but persistent land-based emissions. Input via rivers, discharge of
municipal and industrial wastes and atmospheric fallout account for over 80% of the total annual
input.

Oil pollution enters the marine habitat in small, localized areas, but often can be driven for great
distances winds and currents, causing severe pollution along whole stretches of coastline. Worst
affected are seabirds and ecosystems of the seabed.

21
Pollution Sources:
 Industry

Pollution from industrial sectors around the Baltic sea has a substantial impact on the environment
throughout the Baltic Sea region. A large portion of the problem stems from industries located in the
countries in transition, mostly in the eastern part of the region. These countries lack the economic
foundation necessary to overhaul their industries to be environmentally sound; many of the
industries in these countries are still using technology installed when the plants were originally
constructed (as early as the 1930’s)

Industries found to be most damaging to the environment are the Pulp and paper industries,
chemical industries and metal producing / processing plants.

Pollutants, mostly inorganic wastes, find there way to the Baltic by two means:

• by air, in the form of oxides (NOx, POx) from smokestacks

• by surface water runoff, through waste water discharges from the plants

 Agriculture

The agriculture sector contributes significantly

to the pollution of the Baltic Sea Area. Almost
¼ of the drainage area of the Baltic is used for
agricultural cultivation. Chemical and organic
fertilizers and pesticides are applied to these
areas. Agricultural activities within the Baltic
Sea drainage area account for about 200,000
tons of nitrogen, and 5,000 tons of phosphorus
entering the Baltic Sea each year. This
corresponds to 30-40% and 10% respectively of
the total annual load of nitrogen and phosphorus
on the sea.

Nitrate and phosphate in the Baltic Sea

The massive input of waterborne and airborne nitrogen and waterborne phosphorus to the Baltic is
the major cause of marine eutrophication, one of the most serious environmental problems in the
Baltic Sea. Agriculture also introduces pesticide residues to the atmosphere and the water. The most
important pollution sources related to agriculture are:

22
• leaching of nitrogen and phosphorus from arable land
• leaching of nitrogen and phosphorus from inappropriate storage of manure
• atmospheric emissions of ammonia from manure
• leaching of pesticides due to inappropriate application and storage
• inadequate treatment of waste water in rural areas

Pesticides

The drainage of coastal wetlands for cultivation adds to the nutrient load to the Baltic Sea.

 Traffic

Pollution from traffic sources mainly consist of gaseous emissions from exhaust systems of
automobiles, trains, and ships. These airborne gases include nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide,
volatile organic compounds (including several toxic, persistent and bio accumulating substances),
metals and carbon dioxide.

The transport sector contributes between 40-80% of the total emissions of nitrogen oxides.
Emissions of nitrogen oxides from the transport sector have not decreased markedly in any of the

23
countries around the Baltic. In Denmark, Finland, Germany, and Sweden, the reduction of emissions
from the use of catalytic converters on road vehicles has been offset by an increase in overall use of
transport vehicles. In the other Baltic countries, overall use of transport vehicles has also increased;
these vehicles are often unequipped with advanced catalytic converters.

Emissions of from the Baltic States and from sea traffic in tons/year
NOx / SO2 / VOC / VOC /
Country/Source NOx / Total SO2 / Total
Traffic Traffic Total Traffic
Denmark 284 140 181 7.1 201 96
Estonia 33 18 182 2.6 na 24
Finland 253 121 120 3 190 91
Germany 2,874 1,936 3,156 72 2558 1116
Latvia 52 38 54 2 68 57
Lithuania 158 81 22 9 116 49
Poland 1,280 458 2,820 57 1072 349
Russian Fed na 2,395 na 318 na 1300
Sweden 300 240 165 32 500 200
Sea Traffic 80 80 72 72 na na
Source: HELCOM Lead Party Report on Traffic, 2001

 Shipping

Apart from the gaseous emissions mentioned under traffic,

shipping often poses another potential hazard. Oil tankers carry
over 100 million tons of oil and oil products per year. Spills can
release large amounts of oil into the marine ecosystem, often
with devastating results. A great number of oil spills are detected
in the Baltic Sea Area every year. Oil spills are either due to
accidents or illegal operational discharges. The increasing
number of illegal operational oil spills can be explained by
increased shipping, increased number of sub-standard ships, and
outdated oil and waste reception facilities in a number of
countries.

24
 Ship-based oil transport

 Municipalities

Municipalities account for almost half the number of pollution problem areas around the Baltic
Sea. Sewage and waste water treatment are the main issues for this source of pollution. At present,
considerable improvements have been achieved in the countries in the northern and western parts of
the Baltic region in the treatment of municipal, and combined municipal and industrial wastes. In
countries with centrally planned economies, however, waste water treatment is still a problem. For
years, industrial plants were allowed to discharge their waste waters, generally without pre-
treatment, into the municipal waste water systems for collection, treatment, and final disposal.
Today, this practice creates a crucial problem in the development and implementation of effective
waste water management in these areas.

The main industries connected to municipal water treatment programs include food, chemicals, and
machinery industries.

25
6. ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS IN SWEDEN.

Fishing fleets that impoverish natural fish-stock, extensive exploitation of coast areas, intensive
agricultures, heavy industry, big towns with sewer wastes and increased traffic that impacts the sea
and causes big damage on important environments. The threats against the marine environment are
many.

Sweden has like all other coast nations more or less environmental problems along the coasts. The
Swedish west coast has currently considerably smaller problems than what as occurs along the east
coast. This is unlucky; the brackish water in the Baltic Sea does that only a few species cope with to
live there. The animals and plants that despite all live there are more sensitive for environmental
impact than other species adapted to salt or fresh waters. This causes that the whole Baltic Sea
ecosystem is more sensitive for disturbances, since it is less likely that it will self regulate like other
ecosystems can do. The minimal water exchange in the Baltic Sea does also that the environmental
problems become extra serious. It takes approximately 25-30 years, to replace all water in the Baltic
Sea. It means that what comes out in the sea will stay there far too long.
Among the problems that you find in the sea, there are many emanating from land activities. The
sea is an end station and a mirror of the people's activities in the surrounding countries.

That environmental problem that occurs along the coasts can to be said to be general, that is same
problem occurs everywhere. The problems are concentrated however to those towns where there
live a lot of people.
Some of those general environmental problems that occur along the Swedish coast are:
Over fertilisation
- Nitrogen
- Phosphorus
Environment poisons
- PCB (polychlorated biphenyl)
- DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane)
- Mercury (Hg)
- PBDE (polybrominated biphenyl ethers)
Oil
Plundering fisheries
Ballast waters
Pollution
Heritage landscape conserving

Over fertilisation

The biggest sources to over fertilisation are the agriculture, the traffic and sewer wastes. Those
matters as one associates with over fertilisation in our Swedish coast waters is nitrogen and
phosphorus. The Baltic Sea is the Swedish coast waters that is most exposed by over fertilisation.
Also on the west coast occurs over fertilisation, above all, in coast areas near intensive agricultural
areas. It is of course never good when waters become over fertilised, but the fact that the Baltic Sea
is more sensitive for all kinds of changes, does the situation extra problematic. What happens when
nitrogen- and phosphorus concentrations increase is that the production of algae increases in the
water? The algae sink gradually to the bottom where they are biodegraded. The disintegration
increases the demand of oxygen. An increased disintegration of algae results in increased oxygen
consumption. This causes descending oxygen concentration on deep bottoms. When there is less
than two (2) millilitre oxygen per litter waters, most animal species escape. When this proceeds
the oxygen can disappear entirely. The over fertilisation has therefore resulted in oxygen deficiency,
which wipes out big parts of the bottom fauna in the Swedish coast waters. Today, almost half of the

26
bottom fauna in the Baltic Sea is entirely or partially wiped out because of over fertilisation. Of
course, the life around the Swedish west coast has been influenced by over fertilisation, for example
has Norway lobster (Malacostraca) almost disappeared from Kattegatt since the beginning of
the1980íes.

Environmental poisons

People uses thousands of chemicals in the industry and in the households, many of them can
damage the marine eco-system. Though most of these effects are not yet known. Some
environmental poisons with known effects are DDT, PCB, mercury and PBDE. The problem with
these environmental poisons is that they store in the marine ecosystem and are concentrated higher
up in the food chains. This leads finally to extensive dramatic consequences for fish, birds of prey
and marine mammals. DDT and PCB have resulted in sterile birds, damaged and dead foetuses,
weak eggshells etc. This resulted in, among other things that the sea eagles (Haliaeetus) along the
Swedish Baltic coast were almost exterminated. Also the south-western strain of peregrine falcon
(Falco peregrinus) nearly disappeared because of DDT and mercury. The grey seal strain
(Halichoerus) in the Baltic Sea was near extinction caused by PCB, the females were sterile or had
miscarriage. The wastes of DDT, PCB and mercury have decreased during the last years and the hit
animal species have, with help from some organisations recovered quite well.
The well-known contaminant that today causes biggest damage is PBDE, which is used in for
example in electronic products. These matters give damages on different organisms, and reminds
clearly about PCB.

Oil

Oil pollution, accidentally and by purpose is a serious problem. In the relatively cold water,
together with the small number of species, the oil causes big damage. The break down is a slow
process at low temperature. The oil emanates from ship accidents, illegal cleaning of oil tanks on
ships, and undefined sources in land and oil production offshore. Most oil comes from small
undefined leaks. Oil damages most sea birds and marine organisms like mussels (Bivalvia). Sea
birds are extremely sensitive, only small quantities of oil can be lethal. Furthermore many shores
and beaches are destroyed for several years, this causes a decrease in tourism and severe economic
damage especially for the local people.

Plundering fisheries

During the last centuries the people's use of marine resources has caused the extinction of many
species and dramatic decrease of others. In the Baltic Sea are the populations of cod (Gadus), the
wild salmon (Salmo salar), Baltic herring (Clupea) and eel (Anguilla) in danger. The cod population
east Bornholm is low, beyond biological safe levels, the situation is worse for several populations
along the west coast.
The two main reasons for the plundering fisheries are too effective fishing tackles and too big
fishing fleets.

Ballast waters

The ballast water in the tanks on board the ships brings marine organisms to new environments. In
this new environment they can unfortunately cause mass multiply it and cause disturbance in the
ecosystem. In the Baltic Sea has more than 100 new species been discovered in modern time, about
seventy off these have settled local along the coasts. A small spiny water flea (Bythotrephes) from
the Black Sea is today, perhaps that most dangerous newcomer in the Baltic Sea. It mass propagates

27
itself and forms a gel similar to mashed apples, which among other things clog fishing nets. During
hot summers causes the flea severe problems for the coastal fishing.

Pollution

The pollution along the coasts harms animals and humans severely or causes lethal damages. The
damage depends on which kind of litter and what animal.

Heritage landscape conserving

A special kind of pasture is the waterside meadow. Along flat shores grazing cattle have formed
the landscape, including flora and fauna, during centuries. The grazing cattle keep the landscape
open, prevent the establishing of bushes and trees, their walking creates small ponds in the wet
surface. This favourites for example waders and wild ducks, breeding species find here perfect
conditions but also migrants can rest and feed during passage.
Frogs (Rana) and toads (Bufonidae) find here good conditions; the modern society in general has
caused a decrease in good habitats for these animals. In these grazed waterside meadows we find
some of our most beautiful birds, such as ruff (Philomachus pugnax) and pied avocet
(Recurvirostra avosetta). The magnificiant and rare black-tailed godwit (Limosa limosa) is
demanding concerning their breeding habitat. This type of pasture is vital to the survival of many
bird species. A problem with this pasture is a decreasing number of cattle, caused by economic
conditions. In Sweden we subsidize this branch of business with good results.

Measures taken

The Swedish parliament has in order to preserve the Swedish coastal landscape formulated a list
of measures, “A Balanced Marine Environment, Flourishing Costal Areas and Archipelagos”.

 Interim targets for A Balanced Marine Environment, Flourishing Coastal Areas and
Archipelagos decided by the Swedish Parliament

1. By 2010 long-term protection will be provided for at least 50% of marine environments of high
conservation value and at least 70% of coastal and archipelago areas with significant natural and
cultural assets. By 2005 another five marine areas, plus a further 14 by 2010, will be protected as
nature reserves. Together, these will form a representative network of marine natural habitats. In
addition, an area in which fishing is permanently banned will be established by 2006 for evaluation
by 2010. A further three coastal and open sea areas with permanent bans will be established in the
Baltic Sea and the North Sea respectively by 2010 for evaluation by 2015.

2. By 2005 a strategy will have been adopted for the preservation and use of the cultural heritage
and agricultural landscapes in coastal and archipelago areas.

3. By 2005 action programmes will have been prepared and introduced for threatened marine
species and fish stocks that are in need of targeted measures.

4. By 2010 total annual bycatches of marine mammals will not exceed 1% of each population.
Bycatches of seabirds and non-target fish species will have a negligible impact on the populations
concerned or on the ecosystem.

28
5. By 2008 catches of fish, including bycatches of juveniles will not exceed levels commensurate
with maintaining fish stocks of a size and composition sufficient to ensure that the ecosystem's
basic structure and functions are preserved. Populations will have been restored to levels well above
biologically safe limits.

6. By 2010 noise and other disturbance from boat traffic will be negligible in particularly sensitive
and designated archipelago and coastal areas.

7. By 2010 discharges of oil and chemicals from ships will be minimized and reduced to a
negligible level by stricter legislation and increased monitoring.

29
 TOPIC 2

EUROPEAN COASTS.

30
 2. EUROPEAN COAST

Coasts are some of the most rapidly changing places on earth. Understanding the natural
adjustments that occur between coastal landforms and the process that influence them is essential
for the better management of coastal resources.

1. SPANISH COASTS

·Mediterranean coasts

Morphology of the Mediterranean basin

Fig. 1. Continental Shelf of the Mediterranean Sea

In contrast with the marginal seas of the North-west of Europe the Mediterranean Sea has a low
number of large continental shelves: Valencia’s gulf, Leon’s Gulf, The Adriatic Sea, in front of
Nile’s delta and in the little and great Sirte bays. Their basins have the shape of boiler and very
sloped taluses. In front of the Argelian coast, 30 km seaward, it is possible to measure depths from
2700 to 3000 m (37’5º North and 4º East), while in the Jonic Sea, near Tanarion Cape (37’7º North
and 21’8º East), the bottom reach up is 4632m deep.

Mediterranean physical-chemical characteristics

Two of the most important properties of seawater are temperature and salinity (concentration of
dissolved salts), both together control density, which is the major factor governing the vertical
movement of ocean waters. In the oceans, the density of seawater normally increases with the depth
and salinity, while decreases with the temperature.
The Mediterranean Sea is composed of different water masses; which are originated in a specific
region and consequently characterized for their very restricted values of temperature and salinity.
Water masses are slowly mixed during their displacement along the basin.

Temperature (ºC) Salinity (psu)

31
 Density (Kg/m3)

Fig.2. Vertical sections of temperature, salinity and density for the Western Mediterranean Sea, from
the Alboran Sea region to the Tirren region

Waves and currents

The Mediterranean Sea has in general a micro tidal regime, with only some exceptions like the
Adriatic Sea. In the other hand, wave energy is lower than the Atlantic European coast, although
storm waves are also presents during the winter.
The general current in the western margin of the Mediterranean Sea is from the North to the South
direction, but this pattern is also modified for the medium-scale eddies, i.e. surface currents about
100-km radius, mainly rounding in a clock-wise sense.

Gibraltar Strait

The Gibraltar Strait, located at the South of Spain, is the natural connection between the
Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Atlantic waters enter the Mediterranean Sea as a surface
flow through the strait to replace the Mediterranean water volume evaporated in the very arid
eastern Mediterranean basin. The Mediterranean Intermediate Water has temperatures around 15ºC
and a salinity of 39 psu. This water flows westward at a depth of 200 to 600 m (650 to 2000 feet)
and return to the North Atlantic as a subsurface flow through the Gibraltar Strait.
By the time the Mediterranean Intermediate Water passes trough Gibraltar, its temperature has
dropped to 13ºC and its salinity to 37 psu.

The Mediterranean Intermediate Water is denser than the Atlantic Water, and consequently it
moves down the continental slope, mixing with the Atlantic Water and the result is less dense water.

32
Types of coasts.

 Cliffs

Cliffs are originated with the erosion action of the swell against the land’s coast base. As the
erosion progresses, the rocks that projects by the hollow out of the cliff’s base crumble with the
swell and the cliff backs down. The cliff leaves back a relatively flat surface, denominated abrasion
platform. The platform is extended as the waves continue their attack. Some rocks produced by the
surf zone are throughout to the water like part of the beach, while the rest is transported to seaward.

Cataluña Sierra Helada (Benidorm)

 Beach
A beach is a sedimentary deposit of the shore area. It consists of wave-worked sediment that moves
along the wave-cut bench it may continue across the near shore region to the line of breakers. The
beach is the entire active area of a coast that experiences changes due to breaking waves.

33
 -Beach profile:

SHORE

Backshore
Fore Nearshore
shore oshoreface
surf
WIND Swas Shoaling
h

D
une NM

NM
Berm Bars
intermedi
Barsl
atel

Runn
el

A beach shore is divided into the backshore and the foreshore. The backshore is above the high-
tide shoreline and is covered with water only during storms. The foreshore is the portion exposed at
low tide and submerged at high tide. The berm is the dry, gently sloping region at the foot of the
coast cliffs or dunes. The beach face is the wet, sloping surface that extends from the berm to the
shoreline. And the near shore extends seawards from the low-tide shoreline to the low-tide breaker
line. Beyond the low-tide breakers we find the offshore zone, which is deep enough that waves
rarely affect the bottom.

Offshore beyond the beach face is one or more long shore bars. A long shore bar may not always
be present throughout the year, but when it is present it may be exposed during extremely low tides.

El Saler (Valencia)
 Dunes
Coastal dunes only develop on certain coasts; formation depends on: wind, sediments,
sedimentary surface and vegetation. For example it needs a lot of sediments or less sediment but
sufficient for a determinate wind, vegetation to assist in the trapping of the sand and a slope in the
same direction of the wind.

Fore dunes (the first dune) play an important role storing sediment and protecting the land forms
the extreme wave and tide conditions.
The dune system acts independently of the beach. Dunes represent a sand reserve from which
material can be borrowed by erosion under extreme conditions to reshape the near shore with the
return of those sand volumes during ambient conditions.

34
 For instance the grown of vegetation on dunes slows the rate of sand movement, maintaining sand
on the dune rather than enabling offshore winds to mobilise it.

Tarifa (Cádiz)

 Deltas

A delta is a fluvial mouth in the sea with a high input of sediments which are not carried by
waves.

The sediment input is related to the capacity and competence of the river, i.e. the amount of
sediments and the size of the sediment. The coarser component of the load is deposed first, forming
bars at or just beyond the river mouth. Sandy sediment was deposited on the delta front as the flow
continued to decelerate, forming dipping beds/ termed beds. The finer sediment is deposited later,
and formed a low gradient pro-delta.

35
 Types of deltas

·Andalusia coasts

The sea is in many aspects a world to discover. Their dynamics, their hydrology, their potential
wealth is far from being known in their totality. Sea of Alborán and Gulf of Cadiz are the two
marine regions that are different clearly in Andalusia.

The sea is considered productive, highly able to provide renewable food, minerals and energies.
As opposed to the problems of exhaustion and impoverishment of the resources traditionally
operated by the man, the ocean still offers hopeful expectations of development, so that their
proximity and access have become a strategic advantage for the regions.

The Andalusia territory has a clear marine dimension. Its southern edge, oriented in the sense of
the geographic parallel, develops an ample coastal facade whose waters are distributed between two
marine river basins: the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. From a biogeography point of view it
belongs to two oceanographic regions:
The Sea of Alborán is within the Mediterranean region and the Gulf of Cadiz is a part of the
region ibero-Moroccan.

Both are separated by the Straits of Gibraltar and present remarkable differences due, among other
factors, to the depth of the Straits, the currents and the conditions of salinity and temperatures.

The waters ribereñas of the coasts Andalusian are characterized indeed by the peculiarities derived
from these geographic facts: different marine river basins, one of them semi enclosed one, and
connection of the same ones through the Straits.

The biological production and, consequently, the fishing activity, depend on all those factors that
favour or limit the development of the non live organisms, fundamentally of the patterns of
hydrological operation and the characteristics of the substrate.

36
 The masses of water that are located throughout the coast present, then, like the first characteristic
their lack of homogeneity. The Atlantic is formed by two great types: the North Atlantic central
water and the deep water. In the Gulf of Cadiz the superficial layer has until the 600 meters a low
included relative salinity between 35.5 and 35.6 by thousands, and their characteristics correspond
with those of the Nor Atlantic type. In the great flows, it is necessary to speak of a superficial
circulation, that is originated by the current that coming from the North Atlantic, is branched off in
two: when arriving after San Vicente a branch continues until the Canary Islands and the other
penetrates in the Gulf acquiring a non cyclonal movement. When arriving at the Narrow part of this
water it penetrates towards the Mediterranean and the rest continues towards the South in the
direction of the African coast.

In depth, the waters are located that come from the Mediterranean, characterized by their high
relative salinity (36.5 by thousands) and their greater temperature (11,9ºC.).

Within the Mediterranean scope, the river basin of the Sea of Alborán has a special meaning: in
their western part the first waters are located that enter from the Atlantic, at the same time that is the
last river basin occupied by the Mediterranean water, whose time of renovation is considered in
about ninety and seven years.

The superficial Atlantic water enters like a current internal and concentrated a speed of 100
centimetres per second, forming a non cyclonal turn between the Spanish and African coast. The
Mediterranean water that runs in depth arrives at Alborán with smaller speed (1 centimetre per
second).

The direction of the incoming flow is North-eastern, following the direction of the coast; to the
height of Malaga a branch is branched off, continues towards the Southeast whereas the other tour
giving rise to an eddy.

The lack of homogeneity of waters is not only pronounced in the great superficial flows, but also
in the tides, that condition, the distribution of the intertidal alive communities. In the Mediterranean
practically absent they are given the weak tidal oscillation (between 2 and 4 dm), in spite of which
some adapted species of Atlantic origin to this means exist. In the other side of the Straits, the
amplitude between low tide and high tide is for example in Tariff, 1.8-0.4.

The hydrological characteristics of the masses of water, together with the atmospheric conditions,
also have like result the generation of a peculiar ascending deep water movement that transports
nutrients (up-welling) and consequently increases substantially the primary productivity. Zones of
outcrop of these deep waters in the western end of the Gulf of Cadiz exist and in half the west of
Alborán it surrounds, of the coast Andalusian.

However, and in global terms, the waters that border the coasts are not characterized by their
biological wealth. The Mediterranean is, in general, a poorer sea in marine resources that the
Atlantic Ocean, although the Sea of Alborán has a relative wealth in nutrients due to the
contributions of Atlantic waters, in such a way that partly of the Gulf of Cadiz and in the west of
Alborán similar values in the concentration of nitrates and phosphates exist. Particularly a greater
concentration in the zones is observed where contributions of telluric origin exist and coming from
the urban concentrations, phenomenon that in the Mediterranean affects the primary production
remarkably.

The water interchange through the Straits of Gibraltar is, then, a fundamental mechanism for the
fertilization of the Sea of Alborán, when reaching the Atlantic waters the eufotic zone and the

37
adjacent and deep layers. To this form of fertilization the rich water outcrops are united in nutrients
that, since it has been indicated, are located as opposed to the coast of Malaga. In the Sea of
Alborán the average values of production vary between 70-120 grams by cubical centimetre, with a
winter-spring period of Maxima production. In the Gulf of Cadiz the values of primary production
are greater and the maximums are reached in summer, although near the coast have been high
values in the cold months. In this sense it seems that exist a correlation between the regime of winds
and the production.
The sea of Alborán also presents the plankton communities characteristics of the Atlantic and
Mediterranean water mixture. The high diversity is due to the hydrology and topography of the river
basin. On the other hand, the input of the Atlantic water over the Mediterranean permits the
presence of species, which progressively become rarer towards the East. The greater plankton
density than in the rest of the Mediterranean is based on few populations, mainly “Paracalanus
parvus”. The amount of plankton varies throughout the year of cyclical form and within the process
of succession, being particularly fast due to the deep changes of means and to the short life of the
organisms.

As far as the bottoms, they can be of hard or soft substrate. In soft, the communities are
dominated by invertebrates (molluscs, echinoderms, annelids) and the algae biomass is always low.
In the hard substrates one occurs to the greater degree of maturity and complexity. One denominates
benthos to the set of organisms that live more or less bound to the substrate, of whose stability
depends of the type on communities that can live. The physical factors that condition the benthonic
ecosystems are: nature of the bottom, hydrodynamic, temperature and illumination.

The principal marine territory Andalusia consists of:

• Length of Coast 917 km.

• Extension surface inner waters 2,281 kilometers square.
• Extension surface territorial sea 13,935 kilometers square.
• Extension surface exclusive economic Zone 49,026 kilometers square.

·Cantabrian coasts

The Cantabrian sea is opened to the Atlantic Ocean, located between the western coasts of France
and the northern ones of Spain, from the Estaca de Bares Cap (in the Spanish province of Corunna -
Galicia) to the French coasts of the department of Landes; part of the gulf of Biscay is included.

38
 The French coast presents a low and rectilinear orography, with a continental platform that are
opened smooth and progressively in the sea in North direction; on the other hand, the Spanish coast
steep and of is escarped steep, with a very narrow continental platform that descends abruptly, and
only intercepted by the openings of some rivers, example of the Nalón and Navia (Asturias), Ansón,
Juniper oil, Nansa and Pas (in Cantabria) and Nervión (in Biscay, Basque Country).

In the Cantabrian coast a great amount of beaches, are distinguished to constitute an important
attractive tourist one, example: the beach of Foz (in Lugo), Gijón (in Asturias), Sardinero, Laredo
and Suances (in Cantabria); The Shell of San Sebastián and Zarautz (in the Basque Country); and in
the French part: Biarritz and San Juan de Luz.

The Bay of Biscay is located to the west of France (to the south of Britain) and to the north of
Spain and that bathes the Cantabrian Cornice. In French it is known like "Gulf of Gascuña", and in
English and German like "Gulf of Biscay". It has an area of approximately 225,000 km² and one
Maxima depth of 4,735 mts.

In the area of the Bay of Biscay they are generated very intense storms by effect of the weathers
of the Northwest; the strong surge is intensely erosive of the Spanish coast. The strong winds of the
Northwest that blow on have their origin in the low pressures cantered on the British Islands and the
North Sea in combination with the anticyclone of Azores. The whole range by the wind and
continue effect of the its constant direction and speed causes that it is generated waves that oscillate
between 2.5 and 3 meters of height, which originates a very anxious sea. In very particular
conditions, more propitious in the months of April and May and September and October, the winds
of the West can reach magnitudes of storm waves that get to surpass the 9 meters of height. As we
came near to the French coast the waters go being warmer. It has an average salinity of 35%,
although this data varies much based on the prevailing rain regime in the zone. It is crossed by the
Current of the Gulf.

It has fishing wealth that have turned to varied coastal populations ports of great commercial and
economic value, example of the Spanish ports of Viveiro and Ribadeo (in Lugo), Avilés and Gijón
(in Asturias), Santander (in Cantabria); The Santurce, Bermeo, Bilbao, San Sebastián, Passages (in
Biscay and Guipúzcoa, Vask Country); or Bordeaux in the French part.

The origin of tides

Tides have their origin in the force of gravitate which the moon and the sun attract the masses of
Earth water. That force is greater in the case of the moon, since in spite of being but small much that
the sun, is but near the Earth. On the other hand this force is different in different parts from the
Earth, depending on it surrounds it that they are the sun and Earth the moon of the point in which
the tide will take place, and this causes that the tides are greater or smaller according to localities
and times of the year. The Earth moves taking the complete rotation in 24h 22min. The tides will be
different in different parts from the Earth and different times from the year due to the effect
combined of the sun and the moon of attraction on the sea. When a concrete place is aligned with
the moon, then high tides will take place. When the moon is new and is in conjunction with the sun
with respect to a concrete point they produce the alive or maximum tides.

Conclusions

After this study we have determined the importance of the elements that compose the Bay of
Biscay: currents, tides, temperature, salinity, depth... and everything what they depend on others.

39
3. BELGIAN COASTS

·Mechelen

The North Sea may seem like a small shallow pool of water compared to oceans; still she contains
a wide variety of life. The water and the sediments harbour a large diversity of plants and animals.
The North Sea is a very sensitive ecosystem under constant pressure because of human activities
such as fishing, marine aggregate excavation, shipping, oil and gas drilling, tourism and industry.
The North Sea is surrounded by densely populated and heavy industrialised countries. The part that
reaches Belgian shores is no exception.

Geographical position

The North Sea is situated roughly between the British Isles and Norway. She is connected to the
Atlantic Ocean in the North and with the English Channel in the southwest. The North Sea is
connected with the Baltic Sea in the East at Kattegat.

This sea borders our country in the northwest. The Belgian concession of the North Sea is very
small compared to the territorial waters of other North Sea countries. This is due to Belgium’s own
geographical position.

Rivers

Belgium has 3 fluvial basins, the fluvial basins of the Meuse, the Scheldt and the Yser. These 3
rivers flow into the North Sea. The Meuse and the Scheldt have their deltas in The Netherlands.
Only the smallest of the three, the Yser, flows into the sea in Belgium, in Nieuwpoort to be more
precise.

The North Sea at the Belgian Shores

Facts
Surface if the Belgian North Sea concession 3,600 km²
Depth of Belgian waters 20-30m
Number of ships passing through the 200,000 to 300,000 per year
English Channel

Topography (depth)

The North Sea is a very shallow sea. Near the Belgian coast she is characterized by a very shallow
depth (on average about 20 m and a maximum of 35 m on the Belgian continental plate. Depth
increases towards the Atlantic Ocean to the north up to about 200 m.
The Belgian continental plate is situated in the southern part of the North Sea. This transitional area
to the English Channel consists of a large number of sand banks. These large longitudinal sand
banks reach lengths of several tens of kilometres. It is remarkable that some of these sand banks get
exposed to extreme low tides.
Analysis of the sediments show that the sand bank areas consist mostly out of sand (63µm < f < 2
mm) and gravel (f > 2 mm). The gravel is situated in the shipping lanes that separate the sand
banks.
Excavation of marine aggregates is still increasing in Belgium; production of the last 2 years was
around 1,600,000 m³.

40
Currents

Currents flow parallel with the shoreline near the Belgian coast. Currents flow in SW-NE
direction further out in the open sea.
The North Sea is fed with water from the Atlantic Ocean and the rivers. There is hardly any
exchange of water with the Baltic Sea.
Ocean water enters the North Sea from two directions. Water enters the North Sea from the south
via the Calais Narrow and also from the north along the Scottish coast. Water leaves the sea in the
north along the Norwegian coast. These currents are caused by the tides.
The climate in Western Europe is milder than it should be on these latitudes because of the Gulf
Stream. Warm water from Mexico flows to the North Sea like a warm water river, keeping the
North Sea warm.

Coasts

The coasts of the North Sea vary from mountainous shores, carved with fjords, to cliffs with
gravel beaches to low cliffs with valleys to sandy beaches with dunes. The latter are present in
Belgium.

 The Belgian shoreline

The length of the Belgian coastline is only 66 km. Our country counts 14 beach towns of which
Ostend is the most important place. This city is called ‘Queen of beach towns’. Large apartment
buildings form a wall along the shore because of increasing tourism in this small coastal area.

 Dunes

A thin stretch of dunes was created because by the sea breeze blowing sand land inwards and
depositing it on barriers and/or slopes. Some dunes are thousands of years old, others only days old.
A dune is a dynamic natural phenomenon that may increase or decrease in size daily.
Dunes look different everywhere. Pine or deciduous trees can be found on some dunes, but young
dunes have marram (Ammophila arenaria) growing on their slopes. The development of dunes can
be enhanced by planting marram.
The ‘Hoge Blekker’ is the highest dune on the Belgian coast. Its highest point is 35 meters above
sea level. This dune is part of a chain of dunes separated from each other by dips, which are valleys
in the dunes. Long ago these dips were used for farm fields. The ‘Hoge Blekker’ seems bare with
scattered tills of marran because of intensive recreational use.
This dune is located in the fourth largest dune complex on the Belgium coast after the
‘Westhoek’-complex in De Panne, the ‘Zwin-zwinbosjes’-complex in Knokke and the ‘Ter
Yde’-complex in Nieuwpoort.
Near Knokke there is an interruption of the dunes, the Zwin developed a natural park consisting
of marshes and brackish lagoons.

 Beaches

The sandy beaches along the Belgian shoreline consist mainly out of old Rhine sands mixed with
younger Rhine sands. Sand in the Rhine comes from eroded material from the Alps.

The sand has a very fine particle size distribution ranging from 175 to 200 µm. Because sand is
deposited on the beach when the water retreats wave patterns (current and wave dips) can be seen in
the wet sand on the beach. Most shells can be found on the flood line. Some of the most common

41
shells on our beaches are cockles or heart shaped shells (Cardium edule), saw-shaped shells (Donax
vitattus), wentletraps (Epitonium clathrus), and razor clams (Ensis sp./Solen sp.),… also seagulls
and wading birds are abundant.

 Tides (Hydrography)

The tide changes every 6 hours from high to low tide, flooding (high water) and ebbing (low
water) twice a day.

This change is due in part to the earth’s attraction to the moon. The moon’s gravitational force
pulls the ocean water towards itself. The strength of this force decreases with increasing distance
from the moon. Ocean water closest to the moon is pulled the most. This explains that high tide
occurs on earth closest to the moon.
Centrifugal forces also have their effect on tides. This force is caused by the moon rotating around
the earth, or more precisely because both earth and moon rotate around their common mass centre.
This mass centre is situated inside the earth, not in the earth’s geographical centre, but about 4,600
km towards the moon. This means that the earth ‘swings’ around as the moon rotates around the
earth. Ocean water furthest away from the moon will be swung away from the moon. This results in
high tide in the most distant place from the moon on earth. We can conclude that high tide occurs on
earth in location closest and furthest away from the moon. Perpendicular on that is low tide.

Not only the moon causes this effect, also the sun attracts the waters of the earth.

These tides are a result of the collaboration of the gravitational forces of moon and sun. Although
the sun is a lot bigger than the moon, the moon’s attraction is, due to its distance, greater than this of
the sun. But when sun, moon and earth are aligned the extra force of the sun gives an extra push (or
pull) causing extra low and extra high tides.
Neap tides occur 2 times each month, spring tides occur also 2 times a month, alternating during the
lunar cycle.

The average difference between low and high water levels on Belgian shores is around 4 meter.
The tidal currents in the North Sea are caused by the tidal forces in the Atlantic Ocean. A tidal wave
enters the North Sea via the Calais narrow and along the Scottish Coast and England. This means
that there are several places around the North Sea where high tide occurs at the same time. Lines
can be drawn on maps to indicate the places with the same tidal pattern. There are 3 points in the
North Sea where all these lines meet, and around which the tides shift. These points are called
amphidrome points. The difference between low tide and high tide levels is zero at those points.

Oilrigs and natural gas

The North Sea bed is rich in natural gas and oil, both are intensively extracted. There is neither
natural gas nor oil in the Belgian North Sea concession.
However there are 3 gas pipes passing through the Belgian territorial waters. Two of these pipes
have Zeebrugge as their destination. The third one is headed for Duinkerke.
The natural gas arriving here was won in the Norwegian part of the North Sea.

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4. POLISH COASTS

At the beginning we would like to tell you something about the Baltic Sea. It is located in
Northern Europe, bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Northern Europe,
Eastern Europe, Central Europe, and the Danish Island. The first one to name it the Baltic Sea was
Adam of Bremen and he seems to have based it on a large island, Baltia, mentioned by Xenophon
and located in Northern Europe.

The Baltic Sea is relatively small (427,400 sq km) and shallow (52,4 m). Its length is about 1300
km2. Its salinity is much lower than in other seas, which results in a low diversity of flora and
fauna. There are only some 200 species of plants in the Baltic, predominantly algae like black-
wrack and red algae, often washed up by the sea.

Walking along the coast, we can see that Pomerania is one of the most beautiful places in our
country. It is a historical and geographical region in northern Poland. It is divided into Western
Pomerania, around the city of Szczecin, and Eastern Pomerania, around the city of Gdansk.
Geographically it encompasses two different landscape zones: the coast and, more inland, the lake
districts. Diversified coastline makes the Polish coast really alluring. Poland’s coastline is one of the
longest in Europe. All the beaches are sandy, strewn with sea washed shells, stones and pieces of
amber.

Back to the topic, we will give some information about the shore. There is a lot of diversity, with
alternating picturesque sometimes very high cliffs and broad, low-lying dunes. The most impressive
examples of cliffs, up to 100 meters in height, can be found on the Wolin Island, where they are
protected by the Wolin National Park, while the biggest dunes are in The Slowinski National Park
near Leba. Slowinski National Park lies in the central part of the Polish coast, between Leba and
Rowy. It is known for its migrating dunes. The wind, said to blow here for 360 days a year, ripples
the dune surface, creating elongated waves. As a result, the dunes take on fantastic shapes: parabolic
dykes, burial mounds, hills, troughs, and basins, which look like Saharan landscapes.

The dunes in the Slowinski National Park make

up the biggest area of moving sand in Central
Europe and one of the biggest on the whole
continent. The sand washed up by the sea is dried
by the sun and wind, which at the same time blows
it inland. The most active dunes are moving in a
southeastern direction at a speed of up to 10 metres
a year (4.7 m on average). Nothing can stop this
movement. The forests buried by sand die and when the sand-wave moves on the dead tree trunks
resurface. The landscape continues to transform. Leba, is the main tourist centre in this region.
Dating back to the 13th century, have ceased to exist in the 16th century. It was destroyed by sea
storms and buried in sand, so that it had to be rebuilt from scratches in a new place. A few other
villages have shared its fate.

The Wolin National Park was established in 1960. Originally, its area was just 48.5 sq km, but in
1996 it was extended to 109 sq km. The Park's beauty lies in the diversity of natural and geological
composition. The cliffs here are among the highest and longest moraine elevations on the Polish
coast. The most picturesque: steep cliffs, reminiscent of Friedrich's paintings, stretch east of
Miedzyzdroje. The unique soils support orchids, represented in the Park by as many as nine species.
Wind-gnarled pines and beeches dominate the cliff-tops. The Park is proud of its European bison,
bred in a fenced reserve, and white-tailed eagles, with ten couples of these big seabirds nesting on
the island. Wolin has hundreds of hotels, pensions and holiday homes, some of them just a few

43
paces from the Park's borders. If you stay in one of them in summer, you can commune with nature
and then have fun during various festivals. There is one going on almost every day in high season.

Type of shores

 Clifts

 Sands

 Gulfs

 Dunes

Poland’s coastline is one of the longest in Europe. Every visitor will find something to interest
them on the beaches. There are beaches with lifeguards, water slides, beach volleyball courts, and
places to rent jet-skis, water-skis, canoes, sailboats and windsurfing equipment, as well as colourful
seaside promenades with cosy little bars and fish restaurants.

44
 There are also wild, uninhabited corners where, in the early morning, the fortunate few will find
real treasures - pieces of amber. The picturesque ports and old light houses are open to visitors, and
there are also long, wooden piers stretching out into the sea – the most famous, and one of the
longest in Europe, is in Sopot.

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5. LITHUANIAN COASTS

Lithuania is situated in the geographical centre of the European continent; it is bordered by Latvia
to the north, Belarus on the east and south, and Poland and Russia (Kaliningrad Oblast) on the
southwest. The Baltic Sea borders the west coast.

Climate

Climate in Lithuania is temperate, dominated by the country's nearness to the Baltic Sea. In the
western coastal area, summers are cooler and winters are milder than in the eastern, more
continental part of the republic. Average annual precipitation ranges from less than 600 millimeters
per year in central Lithuania to more than 850 millimeters per year in the west. The long-term
average temperature in summer is 17 °C, in winter 4 °C.

Curonian Lagoon.

This is the largest coastal lagoon in the Baltic Sea. It is an enclosed shallow (mean depth 3.7 m)
lagoon, connected to the Baltic Sea by the narrow (width 400-600 m) Klaipėda Straight. The
southern and central parts of the lagoon are fresh water due to discharge from Nemunas (98% of
total) and other rivers, while the northern part is oligohaline with irregular salinity fluctuations.
Water temperature shows a typical boreal pattern with highest values (23-25 °C) from July to
August. From December to February the lagoon is usually covered by ice. The Lagoon is a highly
atrophied water body with blue-green algae blooms being a regular annual phenomenon from the
end of June until the beginning of November. The main water current in the Curonian Lagoon is the
outflow of the Nemunas (Neman) River, which empties into the Baltic Sea near the port of
Klaipėda.

46
47
 Nature conservation in the coastal zone mainly focuses on the Kursiu Nerija national park and two
regional parks - Pajuris and Nemunas delta - as well as state reserves. Nature protection activity is
also carried out in the state forests along the coastal line where forest categorisation is used as areas
of limited economic activity, protection measures and special management is used for city's parks
and recreational areas. In total approx. 70% of the Lithuanian Baltic Sea and Kursiu Lagoon coast
fall under some form of nature conservancy. Furthermore, many types of animals and plants in the
Klaipeda region are registered in the Red Book, most of them are close to the areas protected by the
protective areas regulations and only some of them require local protection.

The Lithuanian Baltic Sea coast is not very long – it extends 9, 66 km. The Southern part – Kuršiu
Nerija Spit – is a sandy accumulative coast whiles the Northern part of the coastal zone –
continental coast presented by genetically different Quaternary deposits. Both these different coastal
zones are separated by the Klaipėda Strait which serves as a mouth of Nemunas River at the same
time.

There are many problems linked with geological and litho dynamical processes in
the Lithuanian Baltic coastal zone. Lately activation of geological processes called out by natural
reasons (raising of sea level, activity of neotectonic movements, extremely strong storms, etc) and
by human industrial activity (reconstruction and deepening of Klaipėda harbour, damping in the sea,
building of Butingė oil terminal, etc) has been noticed. It was estimated that most active
degradation of the Baltic Sea coast is going between Šventoji harbour and State boundary with
Latvija. Lithuania lost about 8 ha of land per 10 years in this area. Sandy deposits on the beach do
not exceed 15-30 cm, deeper the Litorina Sea peat and gyttja are found. Lately there was noticed
that intensive processes of abrasion of Northern coast of Kursiu Marios Lagoon started as well.

The necessity of geological investigations and monitoring of the Baltic Sea coast became evident
when a very strong storm, having followed the “Anatoly” cyclone, caused a big damage to the
Lithuanian Baltic Sea coast. Million tons of sand was washed into the sea, the protective dune ridge
along the whole coast was significantly injured, and several coastal constructions were disturbed.
The biggest damage of the coastal zone was done between Šventoji and State boundary with Latvija
where Lithuania lost 3.6 ha of land, the protective dune ridge was destroyed and salty water from
sea flooded and damaged the fir forest. Catastrophic situation was in the zone close to Palanga
bridge where coastal plain decreased from 45 m to 14 m and 200 000 m 3 of sand were washed into
the sea. An incomplete bridge construction was one of reasons of such catastrophic coastal
processes in this area. Restoration of Palanga beaches is possible only by “feeding” them with
imported sand. In the meantime there exists only the biological and oceanographic monitoring of
the Baltic Sea that is included into the State ecological monitoring of Lithuania. However, State
ecological monitoring has to be supplemented by coastal monitoring in the nearest future.
Geological Survey of Lithuania in 1999 made the fist step in this direction – it started the
preparation of Baltic Sea Coastal Atlas at a large scale. A set of different maps will be created
during this project and they will be a background for coastal monitoring of the Baltic Sea.

Kursiu Nerija (Curonian Spit) is the name of the long coastal barrier between the Baltic Sea and
the Curonian Lagoon. The area, consisting of woodlands, mobile dunes and sandy beaches, supports
high natural and cultural values, unique in Europe. It was declared National Park in 1991 by the
Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania, in order preserve and manages the landscape
complex and its ethnic-cultural heritage.

48
 Location:

Lithuania, municipalities of Klaipeda and Neringa.

 Size:

26 473 ha

 Actuality:

The Park is facing serious coastal erosion at the lagoon as well as the sea shores, and a rather
significant number of fires, which is closely connected with the increasing number of visitors.

 Sea & beach:

A sandy beach runs all along the western side of the national park. The lagoon coast at the eastern
side is also sandy but much steeper.

 Sand Dunes

Most of the barrier is covered by dune systems. Outside the forested areas, the presence of
barchan forms (desert like dunes) reveals the origin of the dune landscape: bare mobile dunes
developed under the influence of prevailing westerly winds. Along a part of the seaside beach the
fore-dunes have been reshaped by people into a protective dune crest.

49
6. SWEDEN’S COASTS

Sweden´s coast is 7,000km long and salinities vary from almost zero in the northern Gulf of
Bothnia to Atlantic conditions in the depths of Skagerrak. Sweden also has more than 100.000 lakes
and over 7.000 watercourses. Sweden possesses a unique diversity of marine, brackish and
freshwater environments, priceless in themselves and precious to us humans. The total area of
Swedish seas and lakes is almost half the area of the actual land. The vast majority of the population
lives close to some kind of water, and social and cultural traditions relating to shipping and fishing
have for centuries been an integral part of Swedish society. Our watercourses, lakes and seas are
important for tourism and recreation, and they provide us with energy, ameans of transport and
food.

The operations of the Swedish Board of Fisheries are widely distributed along the coast and
inland, ranging from Luleå in the north to Karlskrona in the south and Lysekil in the west. Each
year, the research vessels U/F Argos and U/F Ancylus sail on expeditions along the entire coastline
and in the large lakes. There home port is Göteborg. That which is most conspicuous concerning the
Swedish archipelago is the differences in nature and rock formations. Off the coasts of the islands of
Öland and Gotland, there are the wellknown raukar, limestone pillars, characteristically forming the
landscape, but there are sandy beaches as well. We do have two different types of beaches, sand
beaches and cliff beaches. Further up north, on the west coast, there is the archipelago of Göteborg.
On the east coast there is another type of rock, distinguishing the archipelago in a very special way.

Sand beaches

Beaches are often quite accessible, and once there, it is easy to come in close contact with some of
the Marine inhabitants. It is often possible to wade out into the water and study Marine inhabitants
in their own environment, because it is often quite shallow several metres out. Sand beaches along
the Swedish coast can vary in length from only a few metres to several kilometres. Our
interpretation of a sand beach is a shallow soft bottom, devoid of vegetation. Differences caused by
variations in wave action, tides and the size and composition of the bottom materials that make up
the beach create a vast array of beach types. These differences, together with water variations (i.e.
salinity), in reality constitute a variety of living environments. Furthermore, the living conditions
can vary greatly, even on the "same" beach.

More or less all sand beaches, independent of type, have certain common characteristics. All are
composed of bottom material that has been affected and worn by wave action. The waves constantly
change the appearance of the beach. The affect the waves have depend on their length, height and
frequency. As the waves approach the shoreline, they start colliding and bumping the bottom and
therefore slow down.

There are many reasons why a sand beach can be an arduous living environment. Fluctuations in
sea level cause intense variations in desication and temperature, especially in the upper reaches.
Other difficulties are variations in saline content as a result of rain, floods and drought, and the
transplantation of the whole living environment due to storms.

Amongst the sand dunes grow mostly lichens, herbs and bushes. The sand is a very poor source of
nourishment, but seaweed and other organisms that are washed up onto the beach can supply a
certain amount of nourishment. Certain specie is totally dependent on this source, and survives only
on or close to these banks of washed up seaweed. Sand beach flora below the water line consists of
a great many small single-celled alga. When waves wash up into the beach and shift the sand, it is
usually these organisms that survive. Sometimes they can be so many, that they appear as yellow-

50
grey to dark brown patches on the sand. Many of these small organisms belong to the diatom group,
which is also an important group amongst the plankton that floats about above the sand bottoms.
Other groups that can be associated with the sand beach flora (certain groups can use sunlight to
produce food) include flagellates, certain bacteria and fungi. It is very practical to divide organisms
into plants and animals, but in reality, nature is much more complex.

Cliff beaches

Here on the hard bottoms are some of the most luxuriant Marine environments. The life that exists
on the rocks just under the waters surface is wonderfully rich in colour and form. Stones, blocks and
cliffs can be composed of different material. Hard material like granite is a secure base for
organisms to attach to, compared to more porous and easily eroded material like sand and
limestone, but because of their porosity, they do not dry out as quick. They can also build many
micro environments, for example in crevices, cavities and caves, which is important for a great
many organisms

Stones and blocks that roll amongst each other in the waves are known as cobblestones. The
largest blocks and solid substrate are known as cliffs. Sometimes, these different particles are very
well sorted so there is good reason to call beaches after a certain type, but quite often beaches can
contain material of varying grain size.

On cliffs by the sea, certain organisms are more common than others, especially vertically. Here it
is possible to see distinctive belts or zones that are dominated by certain very noticeable specie, but
often the organisms are so mixed that no distinctive pattern is seen. How these variations arise and
change during different periods, for example seasonal, has not been studied enough to enable an
exact description.

Here are a few examples of how organisms can be distributed on cliffs and rocky beaches:
Those terrestials organisms that reach the furthest down are certain lichens (e.g. wall lichen and
orange lichen ), then there is a bare belt above Marine organisms, salt lichen , green algae(e.g. sea-
lettuce), northern rock barnacle, knotted, bladder and toothed wrack. These species of seaweed
house a large variety of organisms.
From half metres deep, the larger kelp specie builds forests.

51
 In the kelp forests, the variety of algae and small creatures is greater than amongst the seaweed.
Both large and small fish flourish. Deeper down, the amount of algae diminishes and finally is
absent. Here the attached creatures dominate. In the sea and especially on cliifs, the different
creatures are often attached to the substrate and sometimes several individuals sit together and build
colonies. This results in that many of these creatures have a very different appearance compared to
land based creatures that may for example run around. It can be a great advantage for organisms to
live attached to the substrate and rely on the water currents to transport food to them as they do not
have to spend energy on hunting or finding food. Another reason that makes it advantageous to live
attached to the rocks is that there is less risk of them being washed away and thrown up onto the
beach by the waves. It is obvious that living conditions vary greatly from place to place and at
different times. The four environmental gradients that can have an effect on organisms are:

The vertical gradient from sea to land.

The horizontal gradient from little to great wave exposure.
The substrate gradient from foundations of small to large particles.
Salinity gradient from low to high salt content.

Different beaches are on different levels concerning all of these gradients and conditions can
change in the same area on a regular or irregular and long term basis. All this make beach
conditions very different and that each beach is unique.

The Swedish coastline is a little unusual because it

is the weather that affects the water level more than the
tides. Salt content in the oceans is quite stabil, about
3,5 %. Salinity can vary greatly along the Swedish
coastline, from 0 to about 3,5 % in the water and
between 0 and 100 % on the cliffs. Light penetrates
light about 2000 times better than through water, even
if the water is clean and particle free. The water around
Sweden contains colouring agents and particles that
originate from land and quite often many single celled
algae. Because of these, 80% of the light can be
filtered away already at a depth of 2m and the green
light penetrates the deepest because the red and blue
light are filtered the most.

52
 TOPIC 3

LITTORAL ECOSYSTEMS IN
EUROPE.

53
 3. LITTORAL ECOSYSTEMS IN EUROPE

When we talk about the littoral, we understand the border between the water world and the
terrestrial world. This border is not merely a geological concept, but a place where boths worlds are
in contact and interact physical and biologically. Then, we can define littoral ecosystems as the
places where the organisms and landscape are influenced by continental and marine features.

1. LITTORAL ECOSYSTEMS IN SPAIN.

· Mediterranean littoral ecosystems:

We are going to describe the most important littoral ecosystems in our country. We will see some
details such as the flora, fauna, their characteristics, their relations, and how different factors
influence on them.

The Spanish Mediterranean coast is approximately 1.670 km long. Long enough to lodge
differents and important littoral ecosystems such as “Delta del Ebro”; “L’Albufera”; “Mar Menor”
and “Estany Pudent i Des Peix”. We will describe as well different particular environments inside
Valencia local region.

/ Delta del

L’Albufer
a
Estany
Pudent and
Estany des
Peix

Mar Menor

Delta del Ebro.

Located at the northeast coast of Spain, in the province of Tarragona, Delta del Ebro, represents
the main coastal delta of the Iberian Peninsula and one of most important of the Mediterranean.
Morphologically it presents a deltaic front, in which is located the main mouth of the Ebro
River..The morphologic configuration of the Ebro Delta causes the existence of zones with different
behavior in relation to coastal dynamics, combining beaches with erosive character with beaches
whose tendency is accretion.
This ecosystem is considered as a Natural park but there are many socio-economics activities that
are developed in there as agriculture, fishery, aquiculture, hunting, industry (salt) and of course,
tourism.

54
 /

Two aereal pictures of “Delta del Ebro”

The last studies have discovered that there are around 515 different flora species in this Natural
Park. One of the most singular specie is Nymphaea alba and Potamogeton sp.

Nymphaea alba Potamogeton sp

If we talk about fauna, we can find so many different groups such us insects, birds, fishes,
mammals, anphibians and reptils.

Ictalurus melas Silurus glanis

“Mar Menor”.

“La Manga” is situated in the Province of Murcia in a coastal area which boasts one of the most
moderate climates in Spain. It is a strip of sand, approximately 22kms. long, which forms a
"barrier" and encloses the "Mar Menor" (Minor Sea) and separates it from the "Mar Mayor" (the
Mediterranean). At its narrowest parts it is only 100 metres wide and the maximum width is 1.5km.

There are four canals along the length of La Manga which allow the water to flow from one sea to
the other and at the two extremes of the strip there are two protected natural spaces. With a total
surface area of 170 square kilometres (over 60 square miles) it is the largest salt water lake in
Europe. The waters of this "lake" have an average depth of 3.5 metres, with a maximum of 6.5
metres, and it's perimeter extends for some 73 kilometres (approx. 46 miles). Talking about salinity,

55
 we can find two different periods, first one, since 1926 to 1975 approx, where the salinity was
around 53 º/00 and another one fron 1975 since nowadays, where the salinity had dicreased to 42-47
º/00.
N

“La Manga” Aereal view

The fauna and flora of the “Mar Menor” have changed the last 15 years, just because the changing
salinity, the human pressure, decreasing in the water temperature and much more reasons. In spite
of this, we already can find many species as crustaceans, mollusks, jellyfish, algae and many others.

Cotylorhiza tuberculata Acetabularia mediterranea

Estany Pudent i des Peix.

Formentera is the smallest and southernmost island of the Balearic Islands. The island is about 19
km long and rises up to 192 m above sea level. Perfect Mediterranean climate with a cooling breeze
during hot and dry summers makes this island an ideal retreat for a relaxing holiday. Not only
tourism we can find, but two special and differents lakes.

“Estany Pudent”
“Estany des
Peix”

56
 On the Northen side of the island we can find two different lakes, “Estany Pudent”, the bigger one
and without a natural connection with the sea, and “Estany des Peix”, the smaller one and with a
little natural mouth to the sea. This two littoral ecosystems are nowadays natural spaces protected
by the Spanish legislation.
“Estany Pudent” which we can translate as
“smelly lake”, has that name because of the
ungreatfull smell produced because of the balgae
decomposition. Even though, several birds visit the
lake as a principal stoppingb point in its migration.
Many years ago the lake was known as “Flamenco
lake” because this is one of the main species that
visit
annually this lake.
If we thought that salinity from “Mar Menor” was
high, what can we say about “Estany Pudent”
salinity knowing that it is around 87 º/00? Even
though, there are many life in this natural Park.

In the other hand, we have the “Estany des Peix”, (“The lake of
fishes”), with an great ecological importance as well. We can find in its
sourroundings the “pitiusa lizard” Podarcis pityusensis, wich is an
endemic specie from this island, being the symbol of Formentera.
Podarcis pityusensis

The birds of Formentera require special mention. It is known with

certainty that there are presently nesting in Formentera at least 41 species of birds, quite a high
number if we compare it to the 54 especies that nest in both Ibiza and Formentera. We can
distinguish three big groups of birds, depending on where they live. There are land birds, sea birds,
and the birds of wet places with the two last groups being without any doubt the most important.
The outstanding species are those that nest in the Estany Pudent where there are some groups that
are very big and especially important, even on the level of the entire Mediterranean.

Littoral ecosystems in “COMUNIDAD VALENCIANA”

“Albufera de Valencia”

The “Albufera de Valencia” is located in Valencia, just 10 km South to the city center. It has an
extension of 2.837 ha and it is not deeper than 2 m. The water in this lake is not salty but fresh, and
it has three comunications with the sea, one natural and the two others artificial. These three open
mouths are used to regulate the water for the rice agriculture.
This lake is a Natural park as well and one of the most important things that represent that
ecosystem is the birds’ biodiversity. 250 different birds species live the whole year in there, and
around 90 species have exitous reproduction. As important birds species we can find Egretta
garzetta, Netta ruffina and Anas clypeata.

57
 Egretta garzetta Netta ruffina
“L’Albufera” has perfect features for this biodiversity because:
 It is located on the principal exe for the European occidental birds migration, orientated SW
NE on spring and the other way round on Autumn.
 Its landscape has many different places to live, such as beaches, dunes, wood, lake, rice
fields, and so on.

Anas clypeata Valencia hispanica

But we can find other kind of life too such as crustaceans, molusks and fishes as Valencia
hispanica, a fish in risk to be extinguished.

· Littoral ecosystems in the Andalusian coasts:

Andalusia is one of the European regions that count on greater biodiversity. Its strategic
geographic location, in a crossroad between two extensive continents: Europe and Africa and
between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea cause that this territory gathers of
harmonious form multitude of alive organisms. Its great geographical extension, equivalent to
Portugal, and the heterogeneity of its landscapes and ecosystems are other reasons that make
Andalusia have an important patrimony.
The waters of both seas are united in the Straits of Gibraltar that is the geographic feature that
separates Europe and Africa.
• The Atlantic coast is almost all sandy loss and; that is to say, it does not have cliffs hardly
nor rocks because there are no near mountains. It has extensive beaches, like those of Island
Cristina and Matalascañas in Huelva, or those of Chipiona and Valdelagrana in Cadiz.
Sometimes, these beaches have great sand dunes.
• The Mediterranean coast is higher and rockier, because the Penibética mountain range is
close to the sea. In this area there are cliffs, extensive beaches and small beaches of great
beauty called coves. This coastal zone is one of the most appreciated by the tourism that
comes to Spain, to enjoy its climate and its beaches, like those of “Costa del Sol
malagueña”, Almuñécar (Granada) or Aguadulce (Almeria).

58
 Andalusia counts with two types of beaches, those that correspond to the Atlantic part in the coast
of Huelva and Cadiz, which are ample, made of fine sand and strong surge; and those of the
Mediterranean part that goes from the Strait of Gibraltar to Almeria, safe from winds and with
warmer waters.

The average sailor is far from being something homogenous. It has an ecological variety and an
extensive diversity of ecosystems and processes as those that can be perceived in terrestrial means.

Between the main coastal copepods can be mentioned Acartia typicus, with a maxima
concentration at the south of Huelva.

One of the most interesting and rich habitats of the Mediterranean benthic ecosystems constitutes
the marine phanerogam meadows. Its relevance is due to the important role that plays maintaining
the benthic communities as they renew the biomass and its distribution. In the Mediterranean there
are four species: Cymodocea nodosa, Zostera nana, Zostera marina and Posidonia oceanica. The
degradation of the phanerogam meadows denotes the existence of external factors (pollution) and
constitutes therefore an indicator of the quality of the marine communities.

The benthic ecosystem of the “Mar de Alborán” is characterized by the peculiarity of certain
Mediterranean endemic species and by the existence of Atlantic forms that cannot be present in the
rest of the Mediterranean.

The Mediterranean Sea lodges a great number of species in risk of extinction, but the evaluation
of the state of some vulnerable and little well-known marine groups has still not been made, like the
sharks and other fish of these species. Until the moment, the attention has been focused in
emblematic species and charismatic, like the monk seal (Monachus monachus) or marine turtles,
but one first evaluation of the state of the sharks showed that some species of the Mediterranean Sea
have been extinguished, and others undergo the extinction threat.

Western coast and Laughs of Huelva

Natural Places, dominated by the salt marshes, lodge a great number of migratory birds that can
be contemplated in some of the distributed observatories of public use throughout these natural
spaces:

· Natural Place Salt marshes of Island Cristina

· Natural Reserve Lagoon del Vestibule
· Natural Place Enebrales de Shady Punta
· Natural Place Salt marshes del Odiel
· Natural Place Wood Lagoons and the Mothers

59
Doñana Park and Dunar.

Guided Routes, centers of visitors, footpaths and ecomuseums are some of the possibilities that
the natural parks and the national park of Doñana (Huelva, Seville and Cadiz) offer, the most
emblematic space of Andalusia and great international relevance. A route by its interior allows to
admire its rich and diverse landscape made up of dunes and forests, Lucios and matting, salt
marshes, etc.

· National and natural Park of Doñana

· Dunar Park:
- The Ecomuseum “Marine World”
contains an exhibition of the great
marine animals in the world,
emphasizing the presence of
thirteen real skeletons of cetaceans
and one of the two ecoesferas that
are exhibited in Europe. Guided
visits and courses (during the
summer time) are organized on
marine shells as well as exhibitions
of the flight of birds rapaces.

Bay and the Northwest of Cadiz

In this space salt marshes with dunes and

beaches are mixed which has facilitated the
presence of different vegetal formations. In
addition, it can be found many migratory
birds from its four observatories.

60
 - Natural Bay Park of Cadiz
- Botanical Garden San Fernando: activities for the initiation in the knowledge of the
flora, mainly related to one of the ecosystems of Cadiz.
- Western coast of Cadiz, Natural Monument Corrals of Defeat.

Field of Gibraltar and Janda

The passage of the migratory birds and cetaceans towards the African and European continents is
one of main attractive of the natural parks of the Scrub and the Salt marshes of the Barbate and the
Straits. The possibilities to enjoy this spectacle are several: to make a shutdown in its observatories
and viewpoints or to walk by some of its footpaths to observe the transit of these species.

Another option is the one of the voluntary military service. From the center of visitors and
complex Great Orchard the performances of the Program are coordinated MIGRES, an
environmental program for the pursuit of the migratory birds of the Straits of Gibraltar.

- Natural Park of the Scrub and Salt marshes of the Barbate

- Natural Park Of the Straits
- Center of visitors and complex: Great Orchard.

Coast of the Sun and the Axarquía.

The visit to the natural monument “Dunes of Artola” or to the natural place “Opening of the
Guadalhorce” is essential. In the first one, a fossil and movable dune system is discovered only in
this zone and the second a set of artificial lagoons that lodges hundreds of birds.
Closely together are other natural spaces like “Mountain range Crestellina”, the “Real ones of
Bermeja Mountain range”, “Mountain range of Snows” or “Mounts of Malaga”.

61
Coast of Steep Granada.

The natural Fat Maro-Cerro place hides small coves that are delight of swimmers and divers. In
order to accede to them a public transport service has started up until the beach.

Footpaths like the one of Tower of Fat Hill, Beach Cantarriján or Torre Creek are another form to
enjoy this unique natural space.

- Natural Fat Maro-Cerro Place Steep

Gulf and the West of Almeria.

The natural place Entinas-Sabinar End has one of the best dunar ecosystems of the Peninsula that
the visitor will know walking by its footpaths. Closely together it can be found the natural reserve
Lagoon of Adra. Through its observatories the important population of aquatic birds can be
contemplated.

- Natural Reserve Lagoon of Adra

- Place and Natural Reserve Entinas-Sabinar End

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The Almeria east and “Cabo de Gata”.

In the Natural Park “Cabo de Gata” predominate the most meridional volcanic mountain ranges of
Europe. At the information points as that one of Rodalquilar or Visitor centers of the “Amoladeras”
the visitor will know the essential shutdowns in their route and the supplied activities. A network of
viewpoints by the coast of the park offers another glance of the coast. The activities organized by
the classroom of the sea the Corralete and the Botanical Garden the Albardinal complete the supply.

- Natural Park Cabo de Gata.

63
2. LITTORAL ECOSYSTEMS IN PORTUGAL.

Portugal possesses a great diversity of

natural patrimony and different types of natural
habitats and supports a huge number of fauna
and flora, a raised number of endemism and
species very important from the biographic and
genetic point of view, in consequence of the
geographic localization and geophysical
attributes. If in a way this kind of richness
became distinguish us, in another way gives us
the responsibility to protect it. So, is essential
that this richness become recognised and
valorised.

Fig. 6 – Artistic photograph of the Portuguese coast The Portuguese coast has an extension, of
– Luís Santos
1853km approached - distributed by a
continental area of 950km, increased of 691km
of the Azores Archipelago and 212km of the Madeira Archipelago - being able to classify itself in
four main types: beaches, cliffs, wet zones and artificial coasts. Of this, the cliffs and the beaches
are the dominant ones with approximately 348km and 591km, respectively. Such values, suggest
that the coastal band is enough to please all who live there, without offering any rip of quietness for
the ones who calls it of fragile.

Although the Algarve, such as the remain Portuguese coast, presents a tendency for the
maintenance of a dynamic balance, this natural balance is strongly threatened and in constant
modification provoked by the different pressures that it is subjected, verifying a high degradation of
the ecosystems in presence. This phenomenon promptly puts in risk some biological constructions,
whose recovery can not be reached.

The study of ambient impact in the considered zones shows that are some malfunction at the level
of the forecast of the alterations caused in habitats. The coastal management of the littoral band
appears non-capable to safeguard definitive species, minimizing sufficiently important ecological
aspects, which in a long way will be able to bring serious consequences.

The Portuguese coast presents a great diversity of situations since the sand-pits where the
vegetation has a preponderant role in the formation and maintenance of dunes systems to rivers,
lagoons and estuaries where occurs extremely important systems from the ecological and biological
point of view, and also rocky shores where we can find characteristic Portuguese species. The
Portuguese littoral is a big system where cohabits all kind of different ecosystems with geological,
fauna, flora and landscaping values of great interest, result of a narrow dependence and interaction
of the natural processes in what we can’t ignore the action of Mankind.

64
Fig. 7 – Portuguese coast

Fig. 8 – Algarve (tourism)

65
3. LITTORAL ECOSYSTEMS IN BELGIUM.

Our North Sea is such an ecosystem in which all plants and animals have their place. The word
‘system’ gives the impression that North Sea is an almost unchangeable whole, but nothing could be
further from the truth. The North Sea is very dynamic and is constantly influenced by other aspects
of nature, but also by mankind. Moreover, several phenomena can be observed because of which
our coast varies constantly: tidal activity, the food web …

Situating of our coastline in Europe and Its relation with the North Sea.

Belgian coast is only sixty-six kilometres long and thus forms one of the smallest coastal areas in
Europe.

From De Panne to Knokke-Heist we find sandy beaches.

Examples of ecosystems near our coastline. (Natural reserves).

The Zwin.

This region is historically and geographically very important. It was the natural entrance of the
historical important harbour of Bruges during the Middle Ages. Slowly, this natural mouth
increased by the deposition of sand, silt and clay during several centuries. “Polders”have been
created behind the dikes. Now, there is only a small part left. In 1952 the nature reserve was
founded. It became the first recognised nature reserve in our country.

The Zwin with its mudflats and saltmarshes has a unique flora. Especially for birds, the Zwin is
extremely important. The soil-rich life of this nature reserve is a source of nourishment. Common
cockle, the blow lug, the smew, the mud shrimp, the ragworm, the European shore crab, the blue
mussel, the laver spire shell and the peppery furrow shell are each delicacies for birds such as the
bar-tailed godwit, the common pied oystercatcher, the common redshank, the dunlin, the ruddy
turnstone, the Kentish plover, the pied avocet and others.

Together with the Yser estuary and a small part of the drowned land of Saeftinghe, the Zwin is the
only area in Belgium where you can find a natural transition of mudflat to saltmarsh, due to the salt-
requiring plants.

On the Yser estuary we find plants which are more fond of brackish water, and in the Zwin we
find plants that do better on a saltmarsh with a very high saline content such as sea purslane, sea
lavender and sea rush.

The Drowned Land of Saeftinghe.

Until the sixteenth century the land of Saeftinghe was “polder”, rich land reclaimed from the sea,
where people did agriculture and where turf was cut from piled-up peat.

At the end of the sixteenth century, however, there came an end to the prosperity. The Eighty
Years’ War between the Netherlands and the Spanish crown (of which Flanders was a part) and the
increasingly aggressive currents on the Scheldt made the dikes break. The great All Saints-flood
flooded a large part of the land of Saeftinge in 1570. Four years later the Scheldt had claimed even
more land, up to Beveren, Verrebroek, and St-Gillis-Waas. This area is situated on the left bank of
the Scheldt.

66
 Slowly, century after century, the land was reclaimed on the Scheldt. Fertile polders replaced the
mudflats and the saltmarshes. The last land reclamation dates from 1907, on the territory of the
Netherlands. In 1950 the Netherlands had serious plans to reclaim more ground for agriculture, but
a severe opposition from the Belgian government, concerning the capacity of water storage in this
mudflats and the safety of the city of Antwerp, prevented this.

What remains now is an area composed of mudflats and saltmarshes of about 3,500 hectares. The
Drowned Land of Saeftinghe is the largest brackish water area of Western Europe. The water is
about half as salty as seawater. It is important as a brooding area, but also as hibernation and resting
area. The number of birds that hibernate here counts tens of thousands.

Plant life is also adapted to the brackish water. In the low bowls, which flood nearly every tide,
one finds common cordgrass, perennial glasswort and common reed.

As far as animal life is concerned, we find ducks, the common moorhen and the pied avocet.
Migratory birds go there to reproduce, to hibernate and to repose. During summer you can admire
the great egret there, grey leg geese during autumn and winter. The pied avocet dwells there all year
round. The grey leg goose is the most common bird in the area.

The area was permanently placed under the Nature Conservation Law since 1976, which means it
will remain a nature reserve forever.

It can only be visited under supervision of experienced guides because particularly the strong
tidal currents, quicksand and treacherous swamps pose a real danger.

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4. LITTORAL ECOSYSTEMS IN POLAND.

"Littoral" is defined as any site which is known to incorporate at least some intertidal area.
Littoral ecosystems include off-shore marine areas with both organic and non-organic components
along with terrestrial areas. They are the most prolific marine ecosystems with great biodiversity
due to the abundance of light and oxygen, varied rocky and sandy seabed and low zasolenie. There
are six protected littoral areas in Poland, two of which constitute national parks: Slowinski and
Wolinski.

Wildlife

Biodiversity in the Baltic Sea is not impressive, there are far less species than in neighboring
Northern Sea. Moreover, the species number is declining due to water pollution and environmental
changes.

Although the Baltic sea cannot count with impressing number of flora and fauna representatives,
it is without doubt an interesting ecosystem.

Phytoplankton – microscopic floral organisms

(Algae) passively floting in the water. In the Polish
Baltic were observed about 700 species of
phytoplankton.
Photo: Ridiniella catenata

Phytobenthos – plants covering seabed. In the Baltic

sea this group is represented by: Green algae (for
example Cladophora glomerata, Enteromorpha),
Brown algae (for exaple Fucus), Red algae (for
exaple Furcellaria, Ceramium) and seagrass.
Photo: Common eelgrass - Zostera marina

Zooplankton – animal organisms more or less

passively drifting in the water. This group is
comprised by monocellular and policellular
complex organisms: rotifers (Rotatoria), shellfish
and medusas reaching up tens of centimeter
diameter – moon jelly and jelly. Furthermore, Polish
Baltic zooplankton is represented by fish and
mollusk larvae and eggs.
Photo: Moon jelly - Aurelia aurita
Zoobenthos – Aminals living on the seabed. Polisc
Baltic seabed fauna is dominated by mussels (for
example Mytilus trossulus, Cardium glaucum,

68
 Balanus improvisus , Gammarus, Saduria entomon,
Crangon or prawn), snails (for example Hydrobia
ventrosa), bristleworms, (for example Hediste
diversicolor) or few-bristled worms (Oligochaeta).
The most biodiversity can be found in shallow,
rocky seabed.
Photo: Scorv - Saduria entomon

Nekton – big animals, actively and freely swimming

in the water, represented by fish and marine
mammals. In the Baltic Sea there can be found 26
species of saltwater fishes and a few sweet water
fishes. In the waters of the Baltic inhabit 4 marine
mammal species: gray seal, ringed seal and harbor
seal and a representative of whales – harbor
porpoise Sometimes they can be found on Polish
beaches.

Photo: Gray seal - Halichoerus grypus

Ringed seal - Phoca hispida Harbor porpoise - Phocoena Harbor seal - Phoca
phocoena vitulina

Most of marine fish of the littoral area are not used by

man. Among seagrass one can find pipefish
(Syngnathus) and straight-nosed pipefish (Nerophis
ophidion). Shallow bottoms are inhabited by sea
scorpion, Viviparous blenny, butterfish or lumpsucker.
Sandy seabed is populated by great sand eel, lesser sand
eel, flounder and several species of round goby.

69
Straight nosed pipefish - Flounder - Platichthys flesus Greater sand eel-
Syngnathus typhle Hyperoplus lanceolatus

Perch- Perca fluviatilis Eel - Anquilla anquilla Roach - Rutilus rutilus

Round goby – is a ‘new’ species in the Baltic Sea – it was

found for the first time in the Gdańsk Bay in 1990. The
fatherland of this fish are the Black Sea and the Sea of
Azow. Probably it was dragged to the Polish Baltic in the
ballast waters of ships. It found a suitable niche in Baltic
littoral ecosystems and its population number has increased
Round goby Neogobius over the years.
melenostomus
5. LITTORAL ECOSYSTEMS IN LITHUANIA.

Protected areas by ecosystems

The area of Lithuania is 65,200 km2. The relief of the country is flat or slightly hilly. Lowlands
cover more than 70% of the territory. Lithuania is located in the moderate climate zone. The climate
is humid and comparatively cold. A rather high diversity of ecosystems is characteristic of the
country.

The Lithuanian coast is 99 km long. Coastal dunes are the habitat of greatest value, and many are
protected. The Curonian Spit is especially valuable.

Ever intensifying recreation is a threat. The shallow coastal waters of the Baltic Sea are of
international importance. The most rare plant species also grow there. More then 18 500 hectares of
Baltic Sea and coastal zone are under state protection. Birds never leave the Kursiu Nerija National
Park. Late in the autumn, when it gets quiet in the continent and lakes become empty, more than 300
bird species can be seen in the spit. The geography of the Curonian Spit is well suited for scientists
studying bird migration routes. Every autumn scientists hang out nets for bird catching in the Nagliai
Nature Reserve. Each season about 10 to 11 thousand birds are ringed there.

Large flocks of migrating finches (Fringilla) and tits (Parus) can be seen every spring and
especially in autumn. Sparrowhawks (Accipiter nisus) are following these birds. Buzzards (Buteo),
ospreys (Pandion haliaätus), harriers (Falco subbuteo) and hobbies (Circus) very often are cruising
in the sky. Shallows of the lagoon are favored by different species In August beaches are full of
dunlins (Calidris alpina), curlews (Numenius arquata), godwits (Limosa), oystercatchers
(Haematopus ostralegus), etc.

Thousands of water birds gather for wintering in the spit. Common scoters (Melanitta nigra),
velvet scoters (Melanitta fusca), long-tailed ducks (Clangula hyemalis) and divers (Gavia) feed in
the sea. Goosanders (Mergus merganser) and goldeneyes (Bucephala clangula) flock near the
unfrozen cracks in the lagoon. Summer in the Curonian Spit is a breeding season for more than one
hundred bird species. The woods sing with the voices of chaffinches (Fringilla coelebs), warblers
(Phylloscopus), robins (Erithacus rubecula). Near the shore other warbler species (Acrocephalus),
nest in the reeds. It is also home for great crested grebes (Podiceps cristatus), mallards (Anas
platyrhynchos) and mute swans (Cygnus olor). Several rare bird species breed in the national park
also. White-tailed eagles (Haliaëtus albicilla) build their nests in places where humans hardly ever
tread. Two or three pairs of these birds hatch every year. In the woods the black kite (Milvus
Haliaëtus) and the hobby (Falco subbuteo) also have nests. On a beach, the ringed plower
(Charadrius hiaticula) places its eggs right on the sand. In the few old growth forests in the spit, the
stock dove (Columba oenas) coos, which means it nests there also. Grey dunes and foredunes are
home for the tawny pipit (Anthus campestris), rather rare elsewhere in Lithuania. In summer, the
most beautiful Lithuanian duck - the shelduck (Tadorna tadorna) takes its hatchlings out to the
shallows of the lagoon.

2922 ha in the park have no forest cover. These are mostly sand areas, which are 25% of the total
park area.

The distinction of flora in the Curonian Spit is defined by strong winds, drifting sand, soils that
heat up quickly but are dry and infertile, salty water and sudden and frequent weather changes. All
these factors together make the coastal plains similar to the steppe conditions in the southeastern part
of Europe. Walking across the Curonian Spit from west to east and inspecting vegetation, several
natural vegetation stripes would be observed: the beach, foredunes, blown sand plains, blown-out
remnants area, great dunes and lagoon coast.
 The ancient parabolic dunes very clearly can be seen near Nida and Juodkrante.

1. Single specimens of the Baltic rocket

2. Primary dunes with sea sandwort
3. Marram - lyme grass - goat's beard - toadflax covered
dunes
4. Sheep's bit - everlasting sand plain
5. Bog willow - crowberry zone
6. Lichen pine forest
7. Thickets of the dwarf mountain pine (with intersections of
the Baltic rocket, marram - lyme grass - goat's beard -
toadflax and sheep's bit - everlasting)
8. Birch forest

None of plants are able to root on the beach, which is covered with the outwashed sand. Behind the
line where waves do not reach, the vegetation of salty soils thrives. The sea sandwort (Honckenya
peploides), the saltwort (Salsola kali) and the Baltic rocket (Cakile baltica), are annual or perennial
plants with thick pulpy leaves. Foredunes are planted with marram (Ammophila arenarius) and
lyme-grass (Elymus arenaria). These plants have long roots, which strengthen sand mass. The sea
vetch (Lathyrus maritimus), the goat's-beard (Trogopogon heterospermus), the leafy hawkweed
(Hieracium umbellatum), the sea violet (Viola littoralis) and Baltic toadflax (Linaria loeselii) sprout
in the neighbourhood. Most of them have rough, pubescent or wax covered leaves. It helps during
the sudden temperature changes. Pine and birch forests grow distant from the sea. The most ancient
and the most beautiful woods grow near Juodkrante and Nida on the parabolic dunes. There are some
magnificent pines, spruces and oaks, which are 100 to 150 years old. The rest of the Great Dune
Ridge was planted with mountain and Scotch pine grown with grassvegetation. On the Lithuanian
part of the spit only in Nagliai and Grobstas Strict Nature Reserves and Parnidis Landscape Reserve
are there dune areas where trees are absent.
6. LITTORAL ECOSYSTEMS IN SWEDEN.

Sweden has a long coast, with varied

environmental conditions. The Swedish coast
boarders on different seas. The west coast
boarders on Skagerrak and Kattegatt, which has a
large water exchange with the North Sea and the
Atlantic Ocean. Further south follows Öresund,
the narrow straight between Denmark and
Sweden; it is also the boundary between the salt
water and the brackish water in the Baltic Sea.

The remaining coast lies along The Baltic Sea.

The salinity varies from 0.8 in the south to 0.3 in
the northern parts of Baltic Sea. The west coast
has salinity from 2.5 in the north to 0.8 in the
south, that is the most southern parts of Sweden.
The tide is minor along the west coast (less than a
metre) and there is no tide in the Baltic Sea. The
Swedish littoral was created during the inland ice
10 000 years ago.

The Swedish coast consists either of rocky

shores or sandy beaches. The most common are
rocky shores. Parts of the Swedish coast consist of
archipelago, that is, islands, rocky islets and skerries. The archipelagos along the east coast is
unique, parts of it is a World Heritage List.

The rocky shore

The littoral ecosystem the rocky shore and the adjacent rocky bottom is that part of the sea that
gives shelter to many species. The rocky shore is the most common type of ecosystem along the
Swedish coast. Along the rocky shore you often separate between areas more or less wave exposed.
In the more calm areas you find a rich flora and fauna, while the more wave-exposed areas are
dominated by species stuck to the bed, for example bay barnacle (Balanidae).
At salt water conditions

The flora on the hard rocky bottoms along the rocky shores is dominated by macro algae (visible).
In the surface you find species adapted to salt, brackish and some times dry conditions, for example
green algae (Cladophora) and bay barnacle. Just under the surface you will find light lovers, plants
depending of good light conditions, for example sea lettuce (Ulva). Further down – 10 metres
brown algae such as bladder wrack and toothed wrack (Fucus) dominates.

The minimal tide favour species that are stable (Fucus) instead of the fast growing species, you
find in normal tide zones. This is the reason of the wide areas dominated by bladder wrack and
toothed wrack. In such areas you will find the richest ecosystem along the Swedish coast. It is
possible to find mussels, periwinkles, polychaetes, flatworms, gribbles, shrimps and tubeworms. On
a single plant it is possible to find several hundred individuals of the same specie. Other example of
macro fauna in is sea squirt (Ciona), shore crab (Carcinus) and pipefish (Syngnathus). This bank of
brown algae gives food and protection for different fish species, which also use the area to
reproduction.

The fauna in more wave exposed/current water areas are dominated by species like northern rock
barnacle (Balanaidae) and blue mussels (Mytilus). They filter their food (microscopic organisms)
from the water.

Deep-water conditions, under 10 metres, are dominated by red algae (Polysiphonia). Here the
fauna is poor, both concerning species and individuals.

The algae population along the rocky shore are depending on light, wave exposing, ice and tide,
which are also impact the animal life.

At brackish water conditions

The brackish water in The Baltic Sea make a problem for all life living there. There are no special
brackish water species, all species originates either from salt water or fresh water environments.
Fast changes in salinity are fatal to most species, but the species in The Baltic Sea are adapted since
about 2000 years ago. The number of salt water species are decreased the further north you go. The
fresh water species are dominating along the coast, where the salt-water species cannot survive. As
to the rest is the rocky shore and surrounding rocky bottoms by the Baltic coast almost look the
same as them by the west coast. You find green algae, mussels and bay barnacles, and brown algae
banks, most bladder wrack there under. The bladder wrack banks are just as important as the fucus
banks on the west coast.

The sandy beach

The littoral ecosystem the sandy beach and

surrounding soft bottoms can be of different
character depending on waves and currents.
The Swedish sandy beach can be from a few
metres to miles long. Sandy beaches and
sandy bottoms are missing flora, because of
the constant changes of conditions.
LaholmAn other type of soft bottoms you
can find in shallow and protected bays. Here you can find a rich flora and fauna because of the
constant conditions, no big waves or strong currents.
 The variations in impact from waves, changes in water level, and size and composition of the sand
and gravel, makes big variations among the beaches. Though we find some common elements;
plants must have deep roots and animals have to dig deep to get protection and find a hold against
the hard conditions. The beaches are in constant change, the size and frequency by the waves are
the most important factors. The energy by the waves when they hit land loosen material and move it
closer to land. Common animals in such bottoms are lugworm (Arenicola marina), baltic macoma
(Macoma balthica), common cockle (Cerastoderma edule), sand gaper (Mya arenaria) and in the
water you find netted dogwhelk (Hinia nitida) and common shrimp (Crangon crangon). On the
sand-dunes you find lichen, herbs and shrubs. The sand is very poor fertilized, but sea weed and
other things coming from the sea add some nourishment. Some herbs are depending on this
nourishment add and can only exist close to the sea-weed banks.

Where sediments are protected from waves you will hardly find bottoms without vegetation.

This is because the opportunity to get a hold on theese soft bottoms. Among theese bottoms you
find shallow bays with very rich flora and fauna. Here you can find the same size of biological
produktion as on a well fertilized farming field. In the water-line you will find rush
(Schoenoplectus) and reed (Phragmites australis), which further out is succeeded by sea-weed
areas, Eelgrass (Zosteraceae). The Eelgrass is normally covered with fine-threaded algae, mussels,
cockles and other small animals. Theese sea-weed fields is a nursery chamber and groth-
environment for lots of fish-species. In salt water you find flounder (Platichthys), näbbgädda and
herring (Clupea). In more fresh water you find pike (Esox) perch (Perca) and eel (Anguilla). Many
of theese fishes live their whole life in this biotop. Among the birds, many waders are depending
on this area because of its richness of small animals.
 TOPIC 4

DIDACTIS IN EUROPE.
 4. DIDACTICS IN EUROPE

1. DIDACTIS IN SPAIN:

In the past years, Spain has become much more preoccupied by the environment as well as
interested in creating a society that is concerned about the environment. The ecological disasters
that have occurred in our country and the consequential loss of a good part of our patrimony have
opened our eyes to a major problem. That is why different institutions have come together to create
associations to try to find preventive solutions to all these environmental problems. It’s clear that an
element such as education would have to be involved. It’s at school where people begin to become
aware of all the environmental problems that must be solved with everyone’s help.

Cross curriculum subjects appear in the Spanish educational system after the year 1995 to try to
make pupils realize how important it is to respect Nature and the environment. The unit for the
protection of the marine environment was created in 2001 as a result of the proliferation of
institutions and associations to preserve and protect the environment. Its aim was to prompt and
coordinate the different plans and programmes for the protection of the marine environment and
coastal ecosystems as well as the following up of all environmental activities done in and around
the sea. Among other things, it participates in international organisms, negotiations and following
up of international agreements related to anything dealing with the “Dirección General de Costas”.

Governments in developed countries have adopted the use of cross curricular subjects to help
ward off the unwanted effects of development. A good part of crossed curricular subjects come into
being because of intergovernmental proclamations to use the educational system to palliate common
problems. These problems didn’t all crop up at the same time nor were they all exclusive of our
times:
- Environmental education.
- Road safety education.
- Sex education.
- Education for peace.
- Etc

Different autonomous communities have made different propositions. However, all the cross
curriculum subjects are based mainly on two different themes:
- Health (in this case, environmental education)
- The environment (environmental education)
- Society (environmental education does not come in this category)

The objective of this cross curricular subjects is to encourage pupils to live and fight for a positive
way of life, based on hope and to urgently create a new society which understands the importance
of basic values.
- Primary education is characterized by its moral dependency and uses socializing strategies
where caring and affection are fundamental.
- Secondary education on the other hand, emphasises the ethical side, without the caring
aspect.
To put it in a nut shell, cross curricular subjects (and especially those that deal with environmental
education) deal with problems in our society and models of development such us, in this case,
ecological deterioration. It is essential that this activity is well done or it will have been of very little
use.
 To obtain efficient results, the teacher must know and be able to use the logical structure of the
subject as well as understand the psychology of his/her pupils. The teacher should be able to
confront pupil’s acquired ideas in such a way as to make them think for themselves, not only just
participate activity. There should be personal interaction (pupil/pupil and pupil/teacher) and
children should learn to contrast what they knew and thought with what they have learnt.

The teacher should use any kind of real and conceptual maps available (since visual information is
always more effective for a child in primary school) and any type of didactic material which would
permit the child to acquire these values as simply and as enjoyably as possible. Thus, pupils will be
able to relate what they have just learnt with what they already knew and the teacher will have
obtained his/her objective. This can only occur if the teacher is knowledgeable on the subject and,
what is more important, has good teaching methodology. Pupils will not be able to grasp and
understand environmental problems, is the teacher who spends his/her time writing on the board or
giving superficial explanations of little educational interest. The teacher is the person who must
have sufficient pedagogical resources so as to be able to confront and upset pupil’s set ideas –
unfortunately, however, we know that this is not always the case since many teachers are unable to
do this.

And this is precisely why it was decided to foment teacher training in cross curricular subjects in
primary education, especially since the curricular adaptation that was made to include cross
curricular subjects did not take into account the people who were to play a major role in it’s
execution, that is to say primary school teachers.
It was precisely these primary school teachers who realized that they lacked the knowledge to be
able to give these classes and that’s why different modifications were made along the way.

A study was made in the Valencian community that proved the above, showing how primary
school teachers had very limited concepts referring to the environment as well as an obvious lack of
teaching strategies and methods. To better this aspect, the administration should definitely foment
the formation of teachers in this field which, of course, implies a greater financial inversion.
Spain is more and more aware of environmental problems since they are, unfortunately, part of
our everyday lives. That’s why so many degrees and courses for professionals dealing with the
environment have been created in the past few years. At this time of being, these are the existing
degrees.
- Licenciatura (university degree in environmental sciences)
- Intrauniversity Doctorate in environmental education
- Ciclo Superior (environmental health)
- Ciclo Superior (environmental chemistry)
- Ciclo Superior (management and organisation of natural resources and countryside)
- Ciclo Medio (forest and environmental conservation)
- University degree in environmental engineering

These all exist within the formal education system, however there are many courses and masters
dedicated to the study of the environment given by different entities or even by distance, through
the net. But in the educational system in Spain the respect for the environment and the interest for
its problems can be seen clearly in primary and secondary education.
In primary education for example, pupils study “Conocimiento del Medio” getting to know one’s
environment right from the start, learning about pollution, respect for nature, the importance of
preserving our coasts etc.
In secondary education, certain subjects pay special attention to this field –subjects like Biology,
Geography (which tells us about fishing, tourism and, all in all, ways of the subsistence of part of
the population using a method of controlled exploitation of our mother Earth). We mustn’t forget
the economic factor of our environment and how the importance of tourism, our fishing industry etc
depend on it to survive.

The awaking of consciousness

Spain has suffered and still suffers ecological disasters every year. A few years ago Galicia
suffered a major ecological disaster when the oil tanker Prestige sank on the coast of Galicia
spilling oil, leaving the fishing population jobless and ruining a good part of the tourist trade.
Galicia now is very much aware of environmental problems of how to respect nature and now, most
cross curricular subjects deal mainly with environmental education. But when we refer to ecological
disasters, we don’t only mean the sea and that’s when we have to think of other autonomist
communities in the rest of the country. Forest fires are also a great cause for worry as they occur
constantly –brought on by speculation or thoughtlessness and environmental education necessarily
takes this into account. All this is part of the awakening of our conscience at school where we try to
inculcate values of such importance as respect for environment.
2. BELGIUM:

- Education is organised by each of the different Belgian Communities.

- Environment is a matter of the regions.
- Decisions about education and environment are made separately in the two communities of
Belgium.
- Therefore we need to describe both our Belgian systems.

In this paper we deal with the Flemish educational system.

Flanders has its own educational system and its own educational philosophy to organise this
system.

Federal government

Flanders = territorial region Brussels = Wallonie = region

region

environment environment environment

Flanders = Dutch speaking community French speaking community German

speaking
education community
education education

About environment:

Each community has the authority to organise everything that has to do with nature and
Environment (territorial context). A strategy to implement environmental education has been
worked out.

The Flemish minister of environment decided to choose for an integrated approach.

Several authorities, institutions and levels of decision should work together. Nature and
environmental education is a part of education at school, in youth work, social and cultural work,
and adult education. Several institutions offer educational services to all these sectors.

According to the decade of sustainable development of the UN that started in 2005, nature and
environmental education have to be integrated in as many domains as possible.

Education at school is one of them. Principles of Nature and environmental educations have been
integrated in the educational curricula (see further on in this paper).

The Flemish government (Ministry of Environment) supports and encourages schools to obtain
the “Mos”-logo.

“Mos” stands for “Environmental care at school”, and covers the whole school system, from
preschool education to university.
 When schools choose themes such as saving water, preventing waste, saving energy, caring for
safe traffic, using durable materials in kitchens… this “MOS”-project offers the schools know-how,
support, … to realise these ideas. (http://www.milieuzorgopschool.be/mos/index.htm)

Some other initiatives of the Flemish government, concerning support of school and education are
e.g. working on greener surroundings of schools, organising the “Environmental boat” which is an
educational, information and communication centre for integrated water- and nature management…

The strategic objectives 2004-2009 (according to the Conference of Kiev 2003) for sustainable
development have to be realised in accord with the minister of Education.

The Flemish government runs 2 centres of nature and environmental education, “De Vroente”
(http://www.devroente.be/devroente/index.htm) and “De Helix”
(http://www.dehelix.be/dehelix/index.htm).

The government supports the provincial centre of Environmental Education Pime

(http://www.pime.be/). One of their tasks is to give support to schools, to groups of students and
pupils. The team of these centres consists of teachers, specialised in environment-educational
matters.

About education:

To organise education, the Flemish government (Flemish minister of education) has a service,
Department for Educational Development, the so called DVO
(http://www.ond.vlaanderen.be/dvo/english/). This service works out the objectives of the Flemish
educational system.

They have pointed out a certain amount of final goals, final objectives that every pupil must attain
at a certain level of its education.

These levels are distinguished at the end of the compulsory basis school and for all pupils of the
same education form (general, technical, vocational or artistic secondary education) and stage in
secondary school (there are 3 stages in secondary education: 1 is for pupils aged 12-14, 2 for pupils
aged 14-16 and 3 for pupils aged 16-18).

They apply to a minimum set of knowledge, skills and attitudes. These final objectives must be
attained.

There is a severe control on this matter.

Final objectives can be subject-bound or cross-curricular.

Final objectives of environmental studies

 In regular primary education:

In primary school, environmental education is a part of the subject related objectives.

(Other subjects in primary school are mother language (Dutch language), second language
(French), expressive arts, mathematics, physical education. The cross-curricular objectives are
“learning to learn” and “social skills”).
 The subject which deals with environmental education is the so-called “environmental studies”.
This subject contains different domains: TECHNOLOGY, MAN, SOCIETY, TIME, SPACE, USE
OF SOURCES, and NATURE. The domain “Nature” takes care of LIVING NATURE, NON
LIVING NATURE, GENERAL SKILLS, HEALTH EDUCATION, and ENVIRONMENTAL
EDUCATION.

Final objectives of ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION: summing up.

The pupils:
- Are able to carry out the basic activities involved in caring for animals and plants in their
area independently.
- Show that they are prepared to adopt a careful approach to the use of paper, water, waste and
energy.
- Are able to give concrete examples in their environment to illustrate how people’s approach
to the environment can be negative or positive, and that environmental problems are often
caused by conflicting interests.

 Our Teacher Training and these final objectives:

To realise an education with future teachers, there is more to do than giving courses and asking
students to study a range of books.

Our option is to work out several environmental projects with our students. The option is an
integrated approach.

Because we practise the system of problem solved learning and experience based learning, our
students have to work out an environmental problem somewhere in the field in an educational
context. They do this in their 2nd and 3rd year.

In the 2nd year they go to the seaside and develop a project for a future environment for a terrain
near the nature reserve of the Ijzer. In that way, they pass through every possibility and difficulty
that deals with environmental problems: respect for nature, possibilities for recreation and tourism,
planning the space… all this in the context of sustainable development.

In the 3rd year they work out one week of outdoor education, as it is often organised in primary
schools. We try to integrate every domain as well as the pedagogic items and didactic skills in this
educational week.

 Cross-curricular final objectives in secondary education:

In secondary education, not one single subject completely covers all aspects of environmental
education. Therefore, a cross-curricular approach is required.

Cross-curricular final objectives are above all intended to develop the feeling of responsibility. It
often involves goals for which the whole school is responsible and for which the school has an
exemplary role towards the pupils.
 Cross-curricular final objectives have been formulated for the following areas: learning to learn,
social skills, citizenship education, environmental education, expressive-creative education (only
for 2nd and 3rd stage) and technical-technological education (only for general secondary education
“ASO” in the 2nd and 3rd stage).

Every subject is obliged to incorporate (as far as possible) these cross-curricular objectives in its
particular curriculum.

Schools are obliged to make efforts with regard to these final objectives, which mean that they
must try to realise them to the highest possible extent. For some aspects this is possible in
cooperation with external partners, such as the pupil guidance centres we mentioned above.

 Environmental education: key concepts

Environmental education supplies a fundamental contribution to sustainable development. This is

based on the development of environmental literacy in an entire approach: knowledge in cross-
curricular themes and educational fields.

According to the WCED report (‘Our Common Future’, World Commission on Environment and
Development, 1987) by the Brundtland Commission, sustainable development is ‘development
seeking to meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs.’

Environmental education in that way increases the motivation, experience, emotional

commitment, wellbeing and efficiency of the learning process and ethical awareness. An ecologist
trend in school culture is therefore necessary.

Also the mobility problems must obtain our attention.

Diagram: Some subjects can provide technical elements; others are more suitable as subject pool.
These (and other subjects) refer – in a comparable way and with a horizontal interrelation to other
educational processes. Together with these, environmental education forms a global educational
process (sustainable development education).

 Environmental education: fundamental objectives

When trying to attain the cross-curricular final objectives, the school can take the fundamental
objectives described below into account.

1. To realise that the environment is a complex entity of interdependent factors and that each
intervention in the system can have consequences for society in time and space.
2. To realise that sustainability, diversity and vulnerability justify environmental protection.
3. To collect and process social, cultural, economic and ecological data related to the
environment from various sources.
4. To formulate an appropriate question on the environment and to carry out a study of it.
5. To elaborate from a personal point of view an environmental aspect based on facts, values
and standards.
6. To be critical of information relating to the environment and to be willing to test the
personal opinion against facts and against the opinions of others.
 7. To be willing to commit oneself, to apply one’s personal capacities and talents and to work
in a group in order to improve the environment.

Our Teacher Training and these final objectives:

Our division, the teacher training for secondary school, tries to realise the final objectives as
follows:
- In our college (High-School) and the department as a whole: rules of managing waste,
saving water… to realise the objectives of sustainable development.
- In the curriculum of every student: realising a project for a secondary school, chosen out of
the general cross-curricular final objectives, in which those of environmental education take
part.
- In the curriculum of the students who have chosen the subjects biology and geography: to
study, as well the theoretical contents as the practical skills on the terrain, of the several
different biotopes, and practising the principles of sustainable development during the
organisation of these weeks as far as possible.

In that way, we try to realise the methods of environmental education as they are pointed out by
the government: “Environmental education in that way increases the motivation, experience,
emotional commitment, wellbeing and efficiency of the learning process and ethical awareness. An
ecologist trend in school culture is therefore necessary”

Final objectives of EE in the secondary school system:

 Justification:

The grouped final objectives are a concrete elaboration of the fundamental objectives. They are
grouped into themes that are defined for the first stage of secondary education. It goes without
saying that these themes can also be studied in the other stages. The approach in the first stage
mainly relates to the local context and the availability of observe the themes by the targeted pupils.
The "study" of certain environmental aspects should therefore be limited to basic research.

Final objectives EE in the first stage: summing up

Air, water and soil
The pupils:

1. Can give examples of causes of air, water or soil pollution and indicate the consequences for
man, flora and fauna in their own living environment.
2. Can formulate proposals for maintaining or improving the quality of air, water or soil in
their own living environment.
3. Go about carefully with air, water and soil in their own living environment.

Living beings and environment

The pupils:

4. Can illustrate that the diversity of living beings is related to and influenced by the
landscape structure and the human utilisation of the environment.
 5. Illustrate how people from different cultures treat plants and animals differently.
6. Treat plants and animals with respect and care. Society and spatial use

The pupils:

7. Can describe some of the features of the man-environment relationship in types of

society in time and/or space.
8. Can critically examine environmental problems and landscape changes regarding the
local spatial use.
9. Are willing to work hard to protect nature and conserve valuable landscapes.

Waste

The pupils can:

10. Demonstrate through a simple qualitative and quantitative study, which waste materials
are generated in the own living environment.
11. Illustrate that, through waste prevention and reuse, they can contribute to a reduction in
waste generation and apply this.
12. Explain what happens to a recycled waste from their own living environment.

Final objectives EE in the second stage

Environmental care can reveal itself in the attention for nature and the environment. The
distinctive features of environmental education can be stressed in the second stage of secondary
education, not only by linking them up with other cross-curricular final objectives, but also by
stressing contents, skills and attitudes within the distinct sub-themes. By considering the taken-for-
granted ness of society, the pupils’ educational level, the technical and instructional possibilities and
current events, the approach to the sub-themes may differ. Nevertheless, the general goal must be to
realise a harmonised approach of man to his environment. Therefore, the choices within and beyond
the sub-themes should be supported by a school policy.

Environmental care:

Environmental care at school enables pupils to acquire insights into and gain experience of
handling resources, raw materials and consumables in an environmentally friendly way.
Environmental care at school implies both environmental information and environmental action
giving pupils the opportunity to actually intervene in real environmental situations which they are
open to.

The environmental topics featured in the ‘Environmental care’ sub-theme are not confined to the
school situation alone, but are also intended for the local environment with the contribution of local
authorities, the local media and environmental and other organisations. In this way, pupils are
confronted with diverse interests and are faced with small-scale problems that occur in society on a
large scale as well (material restrictions, social dilemmas, habitual behaviour, interest groups and
the like).

Final objectives: summing up

The pupils:

1. Can identify environmental aspects at school and look for information with regard to
handling resources, raw materials and consumables in a goal-oriented way.
2. Are willing to use raw materials, goods, energy and means of transport in a sustainable way.
3. Can participate in an environmental care system at school and – to this end – look for
activities that contribute to a sustainable solution to a certain environmental problem.
4. Can establish contacts with environmental organisations outside school when working on
the environmental care system and make the school aware of environmentally-friendly
behaviour.
5. Can handle the fact that a sustainable solution to an environmental problem depends on
rational and irrational factors and does not always meet their expectations.

Care for nature:

Nature, which we should be concerned with, is a complex whole in which biotic and abiotic
factors mutually influence one another. Care for nature involves the abiotic and biotic nature in rural
as well as urban and natural landscapes. Above all, care for nature means protecting the biodiversity
in general and rare species and their specific biotopes in particular, which involves a creative
experience of nature in a personal regional society.

 Final objectives: summing up

The pupils:

6. Can describe and discuss the specificity of and the diversity in an area of high ecological
value.
7. Can collect data that prove the vulnerability of an area of high ecological value and make
others aware of nature conservation or nature appreciation.
8. Feel the importance of personally experiencing nature and of enjoying nature and
landscapes.
9. Realise that people with another historic, socio-economic or cultural background can
experience nature and landscapes in a different way.
10. Are willing to commit themselves to preserving the biodiversity and value of a wildlife area
and a landscape.

Traffic and mobility

Society increasingly faces mobility problems. Traffic levels continue to rise and so does the
pressure on the environment, the accessibility of destinations and safety. For social, ecological and
economic reasons the growth of motorised road traffic must be curbed and alternative
environmentally friendly means of transport must be promoted. This requires an integrated
approach which transcends the transport sector. Social and individual choices must strengthen one
another. A strong transport awareness and personal commitment for sustainable and safe traffic play
a central role in this.

Final objectives: summing up

The pupils:

11. Use the own means of transport and public transport in a safe way.
12. Can weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of different means of transport.

Final objectives in the third stage

Based on their ability to care for their environment and that of others, pupils can become
sufficiently involved at school to participate actively in the policy. Young people can have their say
in nature development, environmental management and spatial policy and steer standardisation
through their behaviour. It is the school’s task to prepare young people for their responsibilities in
tomorrow’s society. Such sustainable education is a social learning process. Together with other
cross-curricular approaches, it fits in with the global and future-oriented context of young people’s
living environment.

As nature cannot be separated from its utilisation by man and society within a sustainable
environmental policy, a global approach is advisable. Nature, environment and landscape are put in
a holistic context. Here, there must be room for a scientific basis, a set of technical tools, economic
aspects, judicial arguments, cultural indicators and social commitment.

Nature and environmental policy

Post-modern society functions in a world where nature and environment are suppressed. Despite
the strong development of science and technology, society cannot deal with some major nature
problems in an efficient and effective way.

The most universal examples of this are natural disasters and the uncertainty about the global
development of earth’s nature. Nature comprises both the biotic and abiotic components in a close
and global context.

In the school environment and within a large spatial context there are controversial opinions about
ecological values. A policy of intervening in nature development is taught through a social learning
process, which is based on communication skills, scientific anchoring and the readiness to learn in a
constructive way.

In the third stage, the extraction and consumption of raw materials and energy are related to the
environmental policy. Even when the principles of sustainable development are met, the production
of energy and the processing of raw materials require enormous amounts of energy. The conversion
from raw materials to final products and the subsequent recycling both reveal how limited natural
resources are and sometimes cause major environmental stress.

As a result, consumers and producers are constantly faced with questions about sustainable
production, sparing use and the efficiency and necessity of the transport of goods. Even when
consequent and ethical solutions are found to these problems, environmental conflicts will arise that
are out of the league of individuals and nations.
 A general environmental legislation incorporated in a global responsibility for a growing world
population requires a more detailed legislation. To this end, we can assume our responsibility at
different levels by making a critical choice between the alternatives provided.

Final objectives: summing up

The pupils:

1. Can use the communication channels and environmental education networks available in
environmental initiatives and projects.
2. Can illustrate the standard-shifting and cross-border character of environmental pollution in
production and consumption.
3. Are willing to implement the environmental regulations.
4. Consider new environmentally friendly alternatives or small-scale initiatives within the
framework of sustainable development when purchasing goods and consuming services.
5. Are willing to participate actively in the social debate on nature and environmental policy.
6. Are willing to apply ethical standards with regard to scenarios of – for instance - economic
growth, welfare development, demographic evolution and biotechnological development.

Traffic and mobility in spatial policy

Society increasingly faces mobility problems. Traffic levels continue to rise and so does the
pressure on the environment, the accessibility of destinations and safety. For social, ecological and
economic reasons the growth of motorised road traffic must be curbed and alternative
environmentally friendly means of transport must be promoted. This requires an integrated
approach which transcends the transport sector. Social and individual choices must strengthen one
another. A strong transport awareness and personal commitment for sustainable and safe traffic play
a central role in this. This applies to the policy in a school situation as well as to the general policy.

Mobility is inherently linked up with the spatial policy implemented in a landscape context.
Spatial planning determines – to a large extent – the needs, possibilities and volume of transport, as
landscapes are the result of a spontaneous and dynamic spatial use and spatial policy. The living
environment is under constant pressure, both in urban areas and in open spaces. Here, a connection
can be made between the natural context on the one hand and the environment, the demographic
evolution and the socio-economic development on the other hand. The confrontation with various
interests regarding spatial planning can stimulate young people to participate in the spatial policy.

The ‘Vlaamse Stichting voor Verkeerskunde’ (Flemish Foundation for Traffic) focuses on three
aspects with regard to road safety and mobility education:
- Sustainable mobility (accessibility).
- Sustainable mobility and traffic behaviour (road safety).
- Sustainable organisation of public space.

The final objectives for environmental education for the third stage of secondary education refer
explicitly to these three aspects under the sub-theme ‘Traffic and mobility in spatial policy’.
Final objectives: summing up
The pupils:

7. Can weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of different means of transport for the
transport of persons, goods and services on the basis of various criteria and substantiate a
certain choice.
8. Can participate in drawing up and implementing a school transport plan and defend their
own points of view on this matter.
9. Can develop a behaviour pattern in which individual motorised transport is limited and an
adequate, environmentally friendly means of transport is opted for.
10. Can take a position towards a problem of spatial planning or landscape management
individually or in group and become acquainted with the government policy concerning
these matters.
11. Are willing to influence decisions, measures or proposals that can have repercussions on
mobility, transport and spatial use through a constructive contribution.
3. DIDACTICS IN LITHUANIA:

Practical example on coastal environment education:

Nature study lesson for 4th grade pupils: According to the Lithuanian curriculum, we have to
introduce The Baltic Sea for pupils. The first lesson we made theoretical introduction: we showed
the location of the Baltic Sea.

Then we asked questions to children, if there have been near the Baltic Sea. This was how we
started a discussion among pupils. Pupils shared there experiences about being near the sea. Then
we asked what kind of flora and fauna they have seen. They all wanted to express themselves. They
mentioned what they have seen or knew. It was interesting for them. To present flora, we showed
pictures of plants like:

Baltic rocket Sea sandwort

Sea vetch Sea-holly

 Of course we presented many more plants like marram, lyme- grass, ramanas roses, crowberries,
club – rush. For practice we showed the same pictures and pupils had to recognize them. The pupils
we asked about the vital spark in the coastal region. We showed the pictures of birds such as:

Kingfisher Greenshank

Cormorants’ colony near Juodkrante Greyheron

To continue the lesson we joined the questions about fishes and fishering. In general pupils know
about fishering, but they need more information about fishes.
So, to enlighten pupils we showed the video about various fishes in Baltic Sea.
Later we talked about mammals as wild boar, brown hare, red fox, muskrat, shrew and many more:

Elks in the Curonian Spit Family of wild boars

Beaver

We discussed about the protection such animals as otter, grey seal, which are on the Red List.
Then all together we learned new song about red fox. At the end of the lesson we made conclusions:
- In the literal area there are not many plants as in the whole Lithuania.
- There are various and interesting fishes.
- There also birds and mammals in the literal area.

On the second nature study’s lesson we made an excursion to the seaside. We had a guide, who
helped us to learn more about environment of the Baltic Sea. To spend day more useful, we visited
the local museums as “Sea museum”, Amber museum”, “Dolphinarium”. We also visited well
known places as “Ventes ragas”, “Parnidzio Dune”…

Later in the afternoon, we went to the Curonian Spit for sailing in Curonian lagoon. The guide
talked about the pollution of water. He emphasized that mineral oil spills from ships and off shore
drilling platforms. That the concept of eutrophication describes a series of interlinked process –
various physical, chemical and biological changes in plant and animal communities.
 Near the sea coast we collected different plants, we pictured the sea. The day we spend was
effective. After we return home, we gather together to analyze things we had. Pupils had to
recognize the plants we had brought from seaside, then all together made conclusion:
- The knowledge we gained was not only theoretical but practical either.
- The excursion was useful because it’s better one time to see, then 100 times to hear…
- Sea is vital source origin.

The best way of summing up is to prepare an evening with pupils adding songs, poems and
games relating to the Baltic Sea.
4. DIDACTICS IN SWEDEN:

Practical examples on education about the sea and its environment

Education about the sea can of course be carried out in many different ways, like all other
education. But as this education ends up within the matter biology, that is the science about our
environment, animals and plants. It is our opinion that this type of education is suitable to carry out
outdoors in places where one can see what you speak about.

The education the students in science for teachers get in the University of Örebro aims in big
degree to that you as teacher will dare to take your students out in nature and to let them detect the
joy of exploring. A genial and instructive way to carry out education about the sea is thus that, if
possible, to carry out a camp school, where the students have the possibility to experience the sea
tangible. The education for teachers in science includes a camp week at a research establishment,
Krubban in Fiskebäckskil on the Swedish west coast.
 During this week the students get the opportunity to learn a lot about the sea, and also about their
future education as teachers.

During this week on the west coast we accomplished a lot of activities, all aiming at future
education about the sea in our coming profession.

Here we visited the Bohusläns Museum and learned about the people who has lived on the coast
from early history till nowadays. The museum offers schools guided tours through those historical
milieus, very lifelike arranged. Here school children can touch, feel and even climb the exhibitions
objects. You can use different senses when you experience the way people lived along the coast in
historical time. Indeed a nice and way to learn about the varied conditions the coastal people used to
live under.

Another good opportunity of education about life in sea is to accompany a fishing-vessel at sea
and pull a trawl on the bottom. During our camp week we had the opportunity to get aboard an old
trawler and swept over different kinds of bottoms. During these activities we caught a great number
of organisms which we brought to the research establishment for examination.

Here we, of course, determined the species, the basic in our education. But we also worked in
small groups about the way of living and environment of those organisms. All this was showed to
the whole class.

The investigation of the shore and small islands includes interesting and important elements in the
education about the sea. In such places there are opportunities for the students to learn about booth
terrestrial and marine species, species which are depending on the sea and its specific environments.
Among other things you can examine drift wood and other things coming from the sea, what plants,
birds other animals living here. During a full day we did this as an excursion to an island, Gåsö.
 Our experiences and the knowledge we had during our marine camp week, we arranged and made
reflections about in a dairy. This dairy also held pictures of feelings and experiences and, of course,
jetsam etc.

To take part of the sea life isn’t so easy with a class of students because of the ability to be and
work in the water. What you can do is getting very close by a visit to The House of Sea. The House
of Sea is a public sea aquarium which holds about 100 species of different animals from the fjord of
Gullmaren and the Swedish west coast. The house of sea possessions 40 aquariums, the biggest is a
tunnel aquarium which contains 140.000 litres of salt water and the smallest only contains 70 litres.
During our camp school we made a visit at The House of Sea.

There we got a guided tour but we also got time to enter deeply, individual, to what we find
interesting. The House of Sea offering the plants and animals from there natural habits and
environment and you can follow the evolution in a historical way for the sea living creatures.

After looking at fishes and plants during our camp school, we had the opportunity to listen to a
lecture by Hasse, a person working at the Swedish board of fisheries. The Swedish board of
fisheries is the government authority responsible for the conservation and exploitation of Sweden’s
fish resource. This is a subordinate organisation to the Ministry of Agriculture.

The lecture did contain information about the fishing in Sweden, both from a historical sight but
also with day fresh reports. Hasse also lecture about the crab, and how its travelling around the
coast and about there breeding. In the end he talked about the environment and what influence it has
on the crab.
 All of the camp school was summered by a seminar where we in smaller groups had a chance to
discuss what we had taken part of. The thoughts were about how we can use this kind of education
in the future when we work as teachers and how we can deliver our knowledge in a good way. The
seminar generated a mind map when all the small groups had showed there results and ideas.

Through a ventilation of the content lots of good ideas and useful tips comes up. There’s also the
ability to ask about practical problems and find out new smart solutions that can be useful from a
pedagogic perspective.

TOPIC 5

FISHERING IN EUROPE.
 5. FISHERING IN EUROPE

By fishering we understand the action of capturing fishes and other aquatic species for the human
consumption. This action was originally a mean of support, but nowadays we can find that fishing is
used as a sport too.
In this unit we describe the fishering in the European coasts including the main types and the most
important species captured in each country.

1. FISHERING IN SPAIN:

The most important fishing-grounds where the Spanish fleet captures is in the Andalusian-
Moroccan coast for the “bajura” fleet, and, in Morocco, Senegal and Mauritania coasts (East
Central Atlantic), and the Namibian coast (South-Eastern Atlantic) for the high fleets, but Spain also
fishes in the Indian sea and in the Pacific Ocean. Spain is, After Japan, the second country which
more fishes in the world.

· The Mediterranean Coast:

The coast between Gibraltar and the French frontier is divided as fishing goods, in the following
different areas: South Mediterranean, Levante, Tramontana and Balear area. The 30% of the
complete Spanish fleet focus on the Mediterranean coast, and the most important harbours are the
ones in Alicante, Castellón and Tarragona, because more than 10.000 tons of productions are
unloaded annually.

Fishing areas in the Mediterranean

Tramontana area

Levante area

South Mediterranean area

Balear area

· The Andalusian Coast:

Andalusia has 875 km of coast, included the provinces of Huelva, Cadiz, Malaga, Granada and
Almeria and counts on one of the most important fleets in Spain. In the fishering system, Andalusia
has two different sub-regions: the Atlantic and the South Mediterranean region. The fleet that works
in the South Mediterranean is centred in the artisan and coastal fishering, whereas the South
Atlantic one is more diversified, with thirteen primary harbours, 7 in Cadiz and 6 in Huelva.

· The Cantabrian Coast:

The Cantabrian fishering is higher (and better) than in the Mediterranean, evidently, nobody can
measure the number of units and the size of each one, but other references can be used as
measurement. The first thing that we must consider is the effective space in which the fishes live
(all the sea is not apt, or equal of apt, to raise in its sine a stable communities of fishes).

The white tuna is one of the main species captured in Cantabrian Sea. It is captured between
March and December. The greater month of captures is August when the temperature of the marine
water reaches its maximum value. In the month of August of 1981 there were disembarked in
Bermeo, Biscay, 2183 tons of white tuna.

The fishing modalities practiced with fixed arts have great importance, economic and social, in
the Cantabrian coasts, affecting to a high number of boats, most of small bearing, with a remarkable
repercussion on the fishing ground resource. Between this type of fishing arts it is had including
the "currican" (the hook is draging), that although is not a fixed art is within the category of smaller
arts and than it comes being practiced, habitually, by the same boats that work with the rest of the
equipments contemplated in this disposition.
The regulation of the fishing with this type of arts is dispersed in diverse legal dispositions, some of
which contains aspects that need to update themselves. This circumstance makes advisable to take
effect of the real present law to regulate these fisheries.

Types of fishering in the Spain

There are different ways of classification for the Industrial Fishering in the Mediterranean Sea:

a) If we base on the old or new technologies we find:

- “Coastal fishering”: which is the one

where the handmade techniques are
used.
- “Deep-sea fishering”: the one which
introduces the different new
techniques to the boats. Coastal
fishering

b) If we base on the geographic criteria we can classify:

- “Littoral or coastal fishering”: A type of fishing carried out between the Spanish littoral and
the parallel line 60 miles from the coast. In the littoral fishering the boats usually return to
the harbour every day.
- “Deep-sea fishering”: The one which ventures beyond the 60 mile line and in the area
between the 0 º and 60 º N and the meridians 10 º E and 20º W. In the deep-sea fishing the
boats are several days away from the coast.

c) If we base some figures on the boat dimensions, we can find in the Spanish fleet:
- “Craft fleet”: It includes the boats with dimensions smaller than 20 TRB.
- “Littoral fleet”: It includes the boats with dimensions between 20 and 100 TRB.
- “Deep-sea fleet”: It includes the boats with dimensions between 100 and 250 TRB.
- “Great deep-sea fleet”: It includes the boats with dimensions higher than 250 TRB, such as
whaleboats and large freezers.

Fishing arts used in Spain

The Spanish coastal fleet still uses artisan techniques of fishering, since it guarantees the good
state of the fishes and the conservation of the fishing-grounds. Between the most important
techniques we can find:

 Arts that use nets:

-Drag: is an intensive fishing technique which consists in locking up a bank of fishes with net that
arrives to the bottom. This technique guarantees more captures but the ecological balance of the
fishing ground is committed. In addition fixed networks exist, called tunny nets that lead the fishes
towards concrete places. It is only used in the little deep salt marshes zones and calm waters.
Nowadays to locate the fish banks on the high seas sonar’s, satellites and helicopters are used.

-Wall: it is a net of great dimensions that pierces until average waters forming a "circle" around a
bank of fishes. The net is provided with floaters in the superior part and with plumbs in the inferior
part that allows maintaining the verticality in the water. The species captured with this art are:
sardine, tuna, etc.
-Enmalle: it consists laterally of one or several superposed cloth of network that catches when
intercepting it in their trajectory. In order to maintain its verticality, they have a species of cork
floaters. With this art it is possible capture: prawns, red mullet, common sole, etc.

 Arts that use hooks

-Hooks in a line: this equipment consists in a fishing line with several fish hooks. The species that
can be captured with this art are: swordfish, Atlantic pomfret, or sharks.

-Voracera: It is a type of the previous characterized because in the inferior end of the equipment it
takes to a ballast together with the line mother elaborated with fine thread, whose aim is that the
equipment is broken when hoisting.

Arts that use traps:

-Box-trap: They are useful of fishing artisan that is used to capture fish like eels, colored people,
shrimp, stroke, small cuttlefishes or jibias, pulpy, etc. They consist of boxes of forms and varied
sizes provided with one or several openings that allow the entrance of the different species, but
make difficult the exit of these.

-Octopus-trap: They are receiving but or less cylindrical than they simulate to be refuges for
different species, especially pulpy, where they look for shelter or a good place for the egg-laying.

-Tunna net: It is a fixed art of trap that is pierced near the coast and it is used for the fishing of the
red tuna, melva, pretty and the Albacora. The tunna net this constituted by vertical networks that
leave from a place next to the Earth and enter in the sea forming a labyrinth, where they are caught
until his extraction.

-Corrals: (Labyrinths)
They are an ancient method of fishing that consists of creating beach closings of gentle slope and
with great amplitude of tide. These constitute a labyrinth of walls that occupy enormous surfaces.
When the tide rises the corrals fill of water and animals, which are caught when the low tide takes
place. These species can be: squid, gilded, smooth, meagre, small cuttlefish, common sole, and eel.

Seafood traditional arts.

-Sign: It is an art of fishing dedicated mainly to the seafood: fine clams, shells, coquinas, to chir
them, etc. It consists of a semicircular or triangular armour, with a billet that nails and a purse at
heart, in that is accumulated the obtained fishing. Depending on the exerted force it exists: sign of a
foot (the own seafood fisher) and towed sign of (by a boat).

-Hydraulics dredge: It is an apparatus that extract molluscs of the marine bottom by means of the
water use to pressure and a device, with drawer form, that is collecting the species that are
unearthed by the action of the water spurt.

Some of the main species captured by the Spanish fleet are the following ones

COMMON SCIENTIFIC NAME COMMON SIZE IMAGE

NAME & LOCATION
(spanish/english)
· Acedia Dicologlossa cuneata · 30 cm
· Eastern Atlantic:
· Wedge sole Bay of Biscay and
the Mediterranean
· Atún Thunnus thynnus · 150 cm
· Eastern Atlantic
·Northern and in the whole
bluefin tuna Mediterranean.
· Bacaladilla Micromesistius · 15 – 30 cm.
poutassou · Primary in the
· Blue whiting North-occidental
Med. And in
Northeast Atlantic
· Dorada Sparus aurata · 50 cm.
· Eastern Atlantic
·Gilthead and in the whole
sea bream Mediterranean.
· Faneca Trisopterus luscus · 46 cm.
· Eastern Atlantic
· Pouting and Western
Mediterranean.
· Japuta Brama brama · 100 cm
· Northern and
· Atlantic Central Atlantic
pomfret

· Lenguado Solea vulgaris · 45 cm.

· Eastern Atlantic
· Common sole and in the whole
Mediterranean.

· Lubina Dicentrarchus labrax · 55 cm

· Eastern Atlantic
· European and in the whole
sea bass Mediterranean.
· Merluza Merluccius merluccius · 25 cm.
· Eastern Atlantic
· European hake and in the whole
Mediterranean.
(Primary in the
north)
· Salmonete Mullus barbatus · 20 cm
· Eastern Atlantic
· Red Mollet and in the whole
Mediterranean.
 · Sardina Sardina pilchardus · 20 cm
· Northeast Atlantic
· European and South oriental
pilchard Med.

· Anchoa Engraulis ringens · Max 20 cm

· Anchoveta

· Chirla Chamelea gallina · 3.5 cm

· In the whole
· Striped venus Mediterranean.
Clam
· Langosta Palinurus elephas · 20 – 40 cm.
· Occidental Med.
· Spiny lobster

· Pulpo roquero Octopus vulgaris · 20 cm

· In the whole
· Octopus Mediterranean.

· Sepia Sepia officinalis · 20 cm.

· In the whole
· Cuttlefish Mediterranean.

Main Problems in Spain

In the 19th century it was thought that fishing was an endless recourse, but today it is known that,
due to various different reasons, the number of individual marine species has decreased on a large
scale.

The marine alive resources constitute an essential protein source and an economic activity of great
importance. Nevertheless, because of the fleets, eluding the controls of no selective arts, the action
of fishing excessive size, the fishing over captures, and the lack of sufficient cooperation between
the states and the coastal regions, these resources are decreasing intensively.

The main causation behind this factor is over capture. The increase of marine species
consumption has provoked an increase in the captures, causing some of the species to be not far
away from extinct. The results of the fishing activity reveal that the 60% of the most important
commercial species are over captured or wiped out, and only the 25 % of the fishing resources are
considered as constant.

A good example in the Mediterranean is the

case of the European hake (Merluccius
merluccius), whereby captures have decreased
from 52.000 tons in 1990 to 26.000 in 2002.
 The next problem that affects the decrease of the individuals is the pollution. In the
Mediterranean the contamination is produced by the following:
- Oil spilling: it is considered that the 30% of the world oil production circulates in the
Mediterranean. That means that 600.000 tons of oil a year is thrown to the water
because of the accidents, loss or the tank’s cleaning.
- Continental spilling: Each year 400.000.000 tons of solid residues are spilled into the
water, joined to the faecal waters and fertilizers.
- Military boats: They spill around 650.000 tons of toxic residues.

In spite of those problems, there is another major factor that affects the fishering industry,
this being predominantly down to the increase in oil prices. Because of that increase, some
companies have problems to buy enough oil to sail and capture the individuals. This, in turn,
causes a decrease in the markets sales.

In the case of the anchovy, in the Cantabrian sea has been such over capture that it has been
necessary to close all fishering-grounds to allow the recuperation of that species. Because of
this measurement, the merchants had to import that species from the Mediterranean Sea. In
addition the anchovy capture has decreased to the 10% of the available ten years ago in the
Mediterranean Sea due to the improvements of the technologies for the detection of fishes,
and the increase of the tourism, has made the production.

With the purpose of making a sustainable advantage, a better knowledge becomes necessary
for the existence of the marine alive resources reserves, the put introduction of new
technologies that avoid the fishing discarding, improve the quality of the processes, allow the
culture of the species and of course a legislation to control the fishering and the regulation of
the rest periods.
2. FISHERING IN PORTUGAL:

Portugal, land of fishermen’s, of conquers, has many fishing histories to count. As it is a

country, as the poet said, "A planted side-sea", its main source of wealth, are agriculture,
clearly, and during many and sufficient years the fishing.

Types of fishering in Portugal

There are many ways to fish in Portugal, with a fish stick, on the river, beaches and lagoons,
where we can fish the carp or the feather fishing.
In Portugal, the feather fishing can be used in the capture of some fishes, like the trout, the
black bass, the northern pike, the barbel, the bogue, the scale, European sea bass (which must
be the most famous in Portugal for the feather fishing) and others.
It is important to say that this kind of fishering is controlled by some factors like the season,
temperature, the hours of the days, and many others.
Feather fishering
Fish Boats

To fish, Portugal can use a little boat or a big boat on the geographic zone, since the little
wood boats to fish next to the coast, to the big boats. There are many kinds of boats some are
traditional from a city or a region.

Unfortunately, the Portuguese traditional boats, which only use a rowing and wind, are
disappearing, like work boats, doesn’t exist anymore, only in museums.

They are some examples, like the “Catraios” of Tagus River that are for the tourism.

 Traditional Portuguese boats

-Traineiras
Is the simple wood boat evolution, to the wood boat with
motor. It has different sizes, and is not used to go far away from
the coast.
Wood Traineiras, have many sizes and forms. Many are the
evolution of traditional Portuguese boats; others are results of
adaptations by the fisherman’s and their bosses.
The Traineiras, are used to fish with line, or palangre fish, like
tune and sword-fish.

-Fragatas
The Fragata is the most famous boat in Tagus River, now
it doesn’t exist. They where change by industrial and news
boats.
-Caíques
The Caíques are boats with a great history. They used to
do regattas in the Tagus River, during the sixties of the XIX
century. Today they only exist in Olhão (Algarve).

-Arrastões

This boats use a drag-net to the sand. There are many kinds
of dragging; it depends of the different boats, the dragging in
the surface and the dragging in the deep.
The deep drag is fishes that live next to the deep of the sea.

-Bacalhoeiros

The Bacalhoeiros were the boats for fishing the cod fish.
The Bacalhoeiros had little boats called Doris, the cod were
fished one by one to the Doris, and when it was full, they
return to the bacalhoeiro.

-Baleeiras
In 1750, the American whale ships used to stop in Azores to
take the Portuguese fishermen.
This relation was until 1920.
The Portuguese whale ships are more thin, light and
faster.
 -Muletas
Although the strange appearing, the Muleta is a very
good ship to fish.
It has different nets, and when the wind blows so much
it is very fast.

Some of the main species captured in Portugal

The species that Portugal catch are very diverse, , as the sardine, the Atlantic horse mackerel the
European sea bass, the black bass, the Atlantic pomfret, the conger-eel, swordfish, the grouper, the
lamprey of the sea, the flounder, the golden one, the fish-sword, the carp, the trout, the “fatassa”,
the ray, the meagre, the angler, the annular seabream, the “abrótea”, the European conger, the
golden grey mullet, the well known cod and until octopus and whales, that also are hunted here in
Portugal (in the Azores still can find whales frequently).

3. FISHERING IN BELGIUM:

The Belgian fleet consists of 130 boats (0,015% of the European total fishing boats), mainly
trawlers which are fishing in the North Sea and in the Channel. Belgium has three harbours
(Newport, Ostend and Zeebruges).

The catch of the Belgian fishermen is also partly exported and totalises 124,305 tons yearly (7000
T of plaice, 5000T of sole, 3500 T of cod, 1800 T of ray…). However, according to available
figures it appears that the Belgian import is higher (257,001 tons yearly). (A Belgian consumes an
average of 20.2 kg fish per year).

When the fishermen come back with their catch, the fish is stored in the fish auctions. When a
boat arrives in a port, the fish is unloaded from the boat. As soon as the fish has been unloaded on
the quay, fork-lift trucks bring them to the refrigerated sorting centre where they are sorted and
weighed in no time. Thereupon the fish is taken to the cold stores. Then the landings enter into an
electronic system by means of palm computers. Afterwards the fish is sold. The fish auctions are
situated in the three ports named above. The total amount of people working in the fishery-sector is
2,759. About 27 % have a function directly related to the fishing itself, 45% of these people
guarantee the processing of the fish.

In Belgium only 55 companies are involved in the processing.

Fishing methods

In this paragraph the different kinds of boats of the Belgian fleet will be summed up as well as the
fishing method. Distinction is made between the active and passive methods.

 Type of boats

Two kinds of boats are used for the Belgian fishery.

-Trawler:
- The trawler is a boat, fishing with a trawl being a bag-shaped drag-net.
- The processing is frequently already done on board of this boat.
- The length of a trawler is very variable i.e. from 12 m. to 90 m.
-Cutter:
- A cutter has a beam at both sides of which nets can be tied.
- Usually, a cutter is smaller than a trawler, its length varying from 20 m to 40 m.

 Active fishing methods

We distinguish four ways of active fishing in Belgium.

Bottom trawl fishery:
- Here a funnel-shaped drag-net is used. The net is dragged on the seabed, kept open by a metal
tube at the upper part of the net.
- The fish enters the net and arrives in a fine-meshed bag or hole.
- Depending on the kind of fish searched for, different thickness of wires and width of meshes
are used.
- The drag-net is drawn by one or two trawlers, depending on the dimensions of the net.
- In case of two trawlers, one speaks of "pair fishing".
- Before taking in the net, the bag or hole is tight with a rope. Once the bag is on board, the
fishermen untie the rope and the fish is falling on deck.
- Cod, megrim, dab, plaice, angler fish, haddock, whiting, hake, lemon sole, Norway lobster,
saithe, turbot, skate and brill are caught by a bottom trawl.
Beam trawl fishery:
- The Belgian word for it is "boomkorvisserij".
- A "kor" is a sort of trawl net. It is funnel-shaped with a width of 4 m to 12m and kept (open)
by a beam, hence beam trawl fishery or beam trawling.
- The net is lowered till the seabed is reached. So-called "alarm chains", attached to the net are
sliding over the bottom. The aim is to wake up the fish having as a result that they are
entangled in the net.
- It is possible to use only one net but normally two nets are used, one at each side of the boat.
- The cutter is "the" boat for this kind of fishery.
- Beam trawl fishery goes for fishing of dab, plaice, lemon sole, Norway lobster, turbot, skate,
sole and brill.
Pelagic trawl fishery:
- This stands for the use of very large nets (60 m. to 120 m. width) being dragged through the
water at a rather high speed.
- For pelagic fishing the net is pulled by one or two trawlers. The latter case is again - as seen
 before - pair fishing.
- Pelagic fishing is done to catch fish at variable depths.
- Pelagic fishes swim according to the light intensity either close to the water surface or far
below. This is why the nets are in fact floating through the water. Pelagic fishing is used to
catch fish, swimming in shoals and done by the Belgian fleet to catch herring, mackerel, sprat
and horse mackerel.
Purse seine fishery:
- Purse seine fishery is a method using a large, circular, small-meshed pouch-net.
- In open position it is a large vertical down-hanging curtain (depth 120 m to 150 m) which is
drawn through a localized shoal. The bottom of the net is closed and both sides are taken in.
- The fish is brought aboard by means of landing nets or pumps.
- Purse seine fishing is used to catch herring, mackerel and sprat. It concerns mainly fish
swimming in shoals.

 Passive fishing methods

With passive fishing methods nets or fish lines are placed on the seabed or floating in the water.
The location of nets or lines is marked by a buoy at the water surface.
Line fishery:
Fishhooks are used with this fishing method. The fish bites in the hook but cannot get loose
owing to the barbs. Usually, the fishhooks are hanging by means of strings on a long line of
sometimes several kilometres. The line is fastened to the seabed with anchors, every anchor marked
by a buoy. (Cod and hake are caught with such lines).
Net fishery:
Two kinds of net fishery exist in Belgium. The first one has a floating net. Floaters are fixed at the
top of the net and the whole upper side is floating in the water. Lumps of lead are fixed at the
bottom of the net. These nets are in use for fishing angler fish, haddock, whiting and plaice.
With the second one, a net is fixed to the seabed with an anchor. It is used for fishing cod megrim,
dab, plaice, angler fish, hake, lemon sole, flounder, turbot, skate, sole and brill.

Important species for the Belgian fishery sector

The Belgian fleet is fishing on 21 fish species. 17 of them are bottom fish and 4 species are to be
found on all depths of the North Sea (pelagic fish).

 Bottom fishes
Bottom fish are living on the seabed and eat bottom fauna and small fishes. They usually have a
colour shade harmonizing with the nearby sea bottom giving them a kind of camouflage. Bottom
fishes frequently dig themselves in.
We distinguish following bottom fishes: cod, haddock, saithe, dab, flounder, whiting, hake, skate,
sole, anglerfish, turbot, brill, megrim, plaice, lemon sole, witch flounder and Norway lobster.

 Pelagic fish
Pelagic fish is mostly living in the upper water level, swimming mainly in large shoals. They eat
plankton or small fishes. Having frequently a special colour they avoid drawing attention of
enemies going in search of prey: a green-blue back and silver white belly.
We distinguish following pelagic fishes: mackerel, horse mackerel, herring and sprat.
Economy and ecology “hand in hand”: The quota

Quotas are restrictions for the fishing captures. Since fishery became mostly a European
competency, they are imposed by the European Commission. Every year the quota are again looked
at and redrafted.
A long procedure is needed before coming to a new draft of the quota. First of all a scientific
research is done about the situation of the fish-pools and advice is given regarding a safe level of
fishing for a specific region. Thereafter negotiations have to be done with the countries, not
belonging to the EU but having the right to fish in the same regions.
When drawing up a new draft of the quota, the catch of the fleet of a country in the past is looked
at. Every member state has to control for itself whether its quota have been reached and then has to
stop. Moreover every member state has to inform the European Commission regularly about the
catch of its national fleet.
It is clear that fishing is a cause which has to be treated on European level. Mainly from an
ecological point of view regulations are needed on European level. Should this not be the case, the
problem of over-fishing could have dramatic consequences for our fish stock.
The Belgian fleet is allowed to fish in all of them. However, Europe has imposed certain quota per
fish ground. They are defined for every sort of fish.

Conclusion

The Belgian fish sector is rather small-scale compared with other European countries such as
Sweden, Holland…
The number of people working in this sector is not very large. However we notice quite some
diversity of fishing methods used by our fishermen. Also aquaculture is in full development and
forms an important supplement to our fishing. Moreover ecology becomes more important in
fishery. The problems are mainly caused by over-fishing.
Therefore, the quota as imposed by the European Commission, are of the utmost importance.
They maintain the necessary balance between economy and ecology.
4. FISHERING IN POLAND:

The zone of the coastal Baltic Sea includes 36 communes and 18 Polish administrative units in
three provinces: Pomeranian, West Pomeranian and Warmińsko-Mazurskie district. The length of
the Polish coast amounts to 528 km. On the Polish coast are placed 59 harbors, 10 of which have
great importance for fishery. The Baltic Sea has little fauna due to its low salinity. Baltic water is
five times less salty than in the North Sea and the Atlantic. Polish marine areas are rich in fish
stock. Baltic fishery is an irrevocable element that forms seaside communities with strong historic
and cultural traditions. The coastal Baltic Sea zone depends on fishery.

We can divide the Polish fishery into two sectors:

Sea-going fishery

Sea-going fishery is a domain of economy, which has developed significantly since the 60’s of
the last century. The main premise was development and exploitation of ocean water and live stock.
Polish sea-going fishery is executed on a distant scale of the Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean. Fishing
and hunting of other marine organisms can be performed in exclusive economic zones of other
states on conditions defined in multilateral international agreements.

I. Advantages of the Polish fishery:

− Long tradition of Polish sea-going fishery;
− Ships own certificates of qualities enabling export of products for the European Union;
− Skilled fishing staff;
− Possessed techniques of hunts;
− Developed educational and scientific background;
− Young and proficient fleet;
− High quality of production;
− Current fishing agreements enabling fishery;
− Access to fishery

II. Disadvantages of the Polish fishery:

− Limited access to raw materials;
− Limited capabilities of freezing the fish products on sea-going units;
− Low yield of fishing;
− Lack of funds for restructuring the employment;
− Lack of funds for instruction and professional trainings.

The Baltic fishery

Polish government is responsible for the fauna and flora in our sea. A worrying phenomenon in
the Polish fleet is that our boats are in a very bad condition because of their age and technical
problems. Some of them were modernized but it is not enough. Fishers worry about the access of
Poland to the European Union because new and more modern ships can take over control of our
fishery. Also they are older than other European fishers, they do not have enough capital to buy new
boats, Polish harbors are not in a good condition, and they can not sell the fish in the high season.
However the difficulties, positive aspects can be observed, for example good location to catch fish,
historical meaning, and well-educated fishers.
 Some of the main species captured in the Baltic Sea by the Polish fleet:

-Cod- this kind of fish is very important for Polish fishers. This species represents over 60% of
Polish fishery. It needs special hunting limits. Since1997 these limits have continually increased.
The period of ban of cods is longer than in previous years. It is caused by new European Union
regulations which prohibit the fishing from the first of May to the middle of October.

-Herring- this fish is very valued in Polish cuisine and is the most popular fish in the Northern
Atlantic zone. Resources of Baltic herring are not used in 100% due to not enough demand for this
fish.

-Mackerel- Polish people use it to prepare food.

-Salmon- The female of this fish is characterized by red skin during their spawning time. There are
protected from September to December.
-Flounder

-Sprat- increased interest of this species was caused by its use as fodder for animals

Factors that shape and form Baltic fishery

- Biological aspects.
- Decrease of weight of herring during last 10 years which made them less important for
fishery.
- Technical states of boast (number, kind and age of boats).
- Technical condition which influences the boat service (harbors).
- Location and condition of technical harbors infrastructure.
- Bad sanitary condition.
- Condition and quality of market structures.
- Condition and qualification of fishery craft.
- Supervision of fishery sector.

Strong points:

- Historic meaning of the region.

- Easy access to efficient fishery in personal zone.
- Modern outfit part of fishing fleet.
- Absorptive local consuming market on fishes.
- Skilled fishing staff.

Weak points:

- Excessive hunting edition.

- Big part of old fleet.
- Low demand.
- Lack of capital.
- Fishing in time of one season.
- Insufficient infrastructure of harbors.
- Lack of market in top periods.

We can expect growth of demand on healthy food that are fishes and fish preserves in next years.
The main goal for Polish fish economy is the improvement of fish market functions.
 Summing up the topic we would like to focus on is the program: “Protect the Baltic Sea”. This
program is aimed at reconstruction of fauna and flora of Baltic. In 2005 it concentrated on saving
Baltic population of Harbour porpoise. It is scheduled to expand in next years over other threatened
species living in the Baltic Sea.
5. FISHERING IN LITHUANIA:

More than hundreds of different fish species live in the Baltic Sea. The diversity, composition and
distribution of the Baltic fish fauna is influenced by the brackish-water character of the Baltic Sea,
the two-layered water mass and the variable environmental conditions. The fish fauna include
marine species (e.g. cod, flatfish, sprat and herring), anadromous (e.g. Atlantic salmon and Sea
Trout) and catadromous species (e.g. European eel) as well as fresh water species (e.g. pike and
perch). The fish have immigrated at different times by different ways. However, the distribution
pattern of the various species reflects their original habitat and salinity tolerance. Besides the
salinity tolerance, the spreading of marine fish is limited by wintering and reproduction conditions,
the latter affecting especially fish having floating eggs.

In marine fishes the most important adaptations are: 1) a general decrease in body size and
growth rate towards East and North, 2) and increase in egg diameter of the species having floating
eggs and in fecundity and 3) changes in morphological characters and the existence of a large
number of populations or sub-populations, especially in species closely connected with the coast.

Lithuanian in waters

Catches in inland waters are approximately 5-10% of the total catches in the Lithuanian waters
(1,073 tonnes in 1996 compared to 25,203). The state of the main species (bream, roach, smelt,
pikeperch) is good (except eel). Inland waters are allocated into state and private water bodies. In
not leased state owned water bodies’ commercial fishery is carried out according to the established
limits and given permits. The limits are nominated in the tender (except Curonian Lagoon). In the
water bodies, which are not leased but are in the competence of municipalities fishery is conducted
in accordance with the limits set by Fish Resources Department and the permits given by
municipalities. The limit for water body’s tenants is imposed after stocking with fish according to
the fish stocking norms, which are foreseen in the management plans.

The biggest part of inland water catches (approx. 60-70%) is being taken in the Curonian Lagoon.
The major fish species caught in the Curonian Lagoon are the following: bream (Abramis brama),
roach (Rutilus rutilus), pikeperch (Stezostedion lucioperca), perch (Perca fluviatilis), and smelt
(Osmerus eperlanus).

In the Curonian Lagoon researches on the state of fish resources and analysis of fishery are
carried out annually and provide recommendations regarding management measures related to
fishery. Catch limits for bream and pikeperch are established annually in the Curonian Lagoon.
Stocks of roach (Rutilus rutilus), silver bream (Blicca bjoerkna), perch (Perca fluviatilis), pike
(Esox lucius), Asp (Aspius aspius), chekhon (Pelecus cultratus), goldfish (Carrasius auratus
gibelio) have increased in the past years. The stocks of invaluable species such as three-spined
stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) are also sufficiently large in the Curonian Lagoon. Because
these species are rivalries of valuable species for food basis and because spawns of valuable species
become a prey of invaluable ones, it is necessary to stimulate the fishery of three-spined
stickleback. This is being implemented by setting a higher number of limits for valuable species to
enterprises fishing invaluable species as well as by introducing financially stimulated measures.

Some of the main species captured in Baltic Sea by the Lithuanian fleet

There are in total about 100 fish species living in the Baltic Sea Region. Some commercial
importance fishes such as cod, herring, sprat, salmon, sea trout, garfish, eel, the flatfishes - flounder,
plaice, dab, turbot and brill and brackish and fresh water species -white fish, perch, pike, pike perch,
vendace, vimba, bream, eelpout, roach, smelt and three spined stickleback.
Cod (Gadus morhua)

Cod is overall the most important species in the commercial fisheries in the Baltic Sea. The
abundance and distribution of cod has varied considerably over time due to biological as well as
anthropogenic causes. Two populations are present in the area: eastern and western Baltic cod.
These cod stocks have different morph metric characters and population genetics. They overlap in
the area near the Bornholm Island. The eastern cod occurs in the central, eastern and northern part
of the Baltic but not in significant amounts north of the Aalands Islands. The western cod inhabits
the areas west of the Born Holm Island including the Danish Straits. The eastern population is the
largest (90% eastern -10% western population), but some fluctuations in the relative proportions of
the cod stocks occur due to differences and changes in exploitation level and recruitment.

 General characteristics of cod

There are two separate cod stocks in the Baltic: the western and the eastern stock (see below).
There are indications that the main difference between the Baltic and North Sea cod stocks is the
ability of the first to spawn successfully at lower salinity levels. Baltic cod also grow slower than
North Sea cod and reach maturity around the age of 3 to 5 years, maturation being later in the
Eastern stock.

Cod is the most important predator in the Baltic ecosystem. The adult cod have few natural
enemies mainly seals. Cannibalism of juveniles occurs. Crustaceans and other invertebrates
constitute a major part of the food of young cod. With increasing size the amount of fish in the diet
increases with sprat and herring being the major food components

Cod eggs and larva drift with the wind forcing currents from the spawning area to more
shallow nursing areas, where the 0-group cod settle.

Salmon (Salmo salar)

The Baltic Sea carries populations of Atlantic salmon that have been practically isolated from the
Atlantic for thousands of years. Salmon spawn in rivers and the progeny stays in the rivers for a
period of 1-5 years depending on how far north the river is situated. Most salmon migrate in a post
smolt stage to the main feeding areas in the Main Basin and return to their home rivers after 2-4
years. In the sea salmon feed mainly on sprat and herring.
 The Baltic salmon is exploited in the off shore fishery by the use of drift nets and long lines. In
the coastal areas the most common gears used are trap nets and a non-commercial fishery with
ordinary nets. In rivers seine nets and sport fishing are the most abundant methods.

The influence of hydro graphic conditions on Baltic Sea fish stocks

In the deeper areas of the Baltic Sea south of the Island there is permanent salinity stratification with a
low salinity surface layer and a deep saline layer. The halocline separating the surface layer from the
saline layer forms an effective barrier to thermal convection. The fresh surface water exits the basins
through the shallow straits in the western Baltic, i.e. west of the Bornholm Island, while oxygenated;
saline water flows in at depth. The inflowing water is mainly collected by three deep basins in the
eastern Baltic, reaching first the Bornholm Basin where the water after a transition time, may pass to the
eastern Gdansk Deep and the north-eastern Gotland Deep. The inflow of saline water through the Danish
Belts is a major determinant of the oxygen and saline conditions in the deep basins of the eastern Baltic
(Bornholm, Gdansk and Gotland Deeps). This inflow is wind driven and occurs with steady and strong
north-westerly winds over the North Sea and the Skagerrak.

The distribution of fish in the Baltic Sea is salinity dependent. The marine fish, e.g. cod, need a
minimum salinity while the fresh water species also found in the Baltic cannot tolerate a high salinity.
Therefore the fresh water species are found in the coastal areas and in the northern parts of the Baltic
Sea, e.g. in the Gulf of Bothnia while the marine species dominates in the Baltic Proper and the Western
Baltic. The individual adult can tolerate lower salinities but requires higher salinity for successful
reproduction. Many of the species have floating eggs and for these species the egg will sink to the
bottom and die at lower salinities. Also the water mass associated with neutral buoyancy must have a
minimum oxygen content to allow the eggs to survive around at 2 ml/l. The table below presents the
minimum salinities required for reproduction for a number of species

Species Floating eggs Minimum salinity for reproduction (psu)

Cod Yes 11
Herring No 3
Sprat Yes 5
Plaice Yes 12-13
Flounder Yes 5-6
Dab Yes 15
Turbot Yes 6-7
An ecological fishery lives up to the objectives by

- Maintaining the marine environment by minimising the impact of fishing gear.

- Minimising the catch of juveniles and other unwanted by catch.
- Reducing fuel consumption as a percentage of catch and value.
- Freeing the marine environment from inorganic pollution by minimising loss of fishing
gear and refraining from throwing inorganic waste in the sea.
- Providing education about marine pollution. If necessary to stop fishing in certain polluted
areas.
- The development of the ecological fishery providing the background for viable fishing
communities.
- Promoting a fishery that increases the practising fisherman's share of fish value.
- Producing the best possible quality by careful treatment of the catch.

Conclusions

- A general decrease in body size and growth rate towards East and North and increase in
egg diameter of the species having floating eggs and in fecundity and changes in
morphological characters and the existence of a large number of populations or sub-
populations, especially in species closely connected with the coast.
- Commercial fishery is carried out according to the established limits and given permits.
- Because these species are rivalries of valuable species for food basis and because spawns
of valuable species become a prey of invaluable ones, it is necessary to stimulate the
fishery of three-spined stickleback.
- East and North in accordance with the increasing volume of fresh water relative to saline
water.
6. FISHERING IN SWEDEN:

Fish and crustaceans have always been an important resource for human beings. In 2002, Swedes
consumed more than 150,000 tonnes of fish. Today, there are over 2,000 professional fisherman in
Sweden, who each year catch some 330,000 tonnes of fish and crustaceans with a market value of
around one billion kronor (ca 107 million Euro). Today fishermen catch in average 25 times more
fish than they did in 1914. At the same time, the amount of professional fisherman has decreased by
90%. Important species for the professional fishing is (or have been) herring, sprat, cod, haddock,
coalfish, whiting, salmon and mackerel, together with different flatfish as plaice and flounder. Also,
recreational fishing is widespread. More than two million Swedes enjoy angling in their spare time.

Today fishing problems

Saltwater and freshwater fishes are a renewable resource that must be managed in manner that is
both ecologically and economically sustainable. The Swedish fishing industry is regulated within
the general framework of the EU common fisheries policy. One of fishing most serious
environmental problems is undesirable by-catches. Fish that are too small, along with illegal catches
and catches of little commercial value, are routinely discarded into the sea and do not survive.

In the Baltic Sea and in the west coast of Sweden the cod is about to disappear. The main reason
for that is the big amount of fishing today. The 70% of all caught cods are so small that they haven’t
had time to increase. Even though the catches of cod in the Baltic Sea have decreased since the
middle 1980th, the total amount of cod fishing haven’t decreased in the same rate as the cod stock.
Because of that The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation is working toward a temporary halt
in cod fishing operations in the Baltic Sea east of Born Holm Island and along the West Coast, in
order to give the population a chance to recover. They are also promoting changes in EU fishing
policies in different ways and have made a list of 14 requirements for the future creation of
sustainable fishing.

Up to now the debate mostly is about stop fishing, but experience from Canada shows that’s not
enough. When the cod stock decreases the herrings get smaller which make it harder to get the cod
back. Researchers from Umeå University believe that it therefore is harder to get the cod back and
that the way to get it back is to fish at the herring. Other researchers also show the importance of
letting the cod stocks to recover fully before re-opening fisheries. When some of the Canadian
stocks showed signs of recovery, restricted fisheries were re-opened and the small increase in stock
size was quickly wiped out.

From food-fish to fish-food

During the last ten years the Swedish fishing has changed because of the big amount of fishing
and the shrinking catches. Ten years ago 70% of the total catch was food-fish. Today 80% of the
catches go to feedstuff, mainly sprats. Feedstuff fish that transforms into fish oil and fish flour
represent the largest part of the catch. The oil and the flour are used to feed other animals, breaded
for meat and fur. There’s a worldwide trade with fish oil and fish flour especially to the accelerated
fish cultivation industry of for example salmon.

Lack of oxygen

The environmental condition in the Baltic Sea is serious, and pollution discharge levels continue
to rise. Although in certain areas the increase has been halted, a drastic decrease of total pollution
discharges is needed in order for circumstances to improve.

There are about 85 million people that contribute to the destruction of the Baltic Sea, Kattegatt
and Skagerak. The water gets polluted from the sewage, uses of cars and from the agriculture. All
life in the water needs nutritious substance like nitrogen or phosphor. But when the levels gets to
high it causes algae blooming and lack of oxygen which for example kill the fishes roe.

The heavy growth of plankton on the surface caused by over-fertilisation has led to a lack of
oxygen, which, in turn, has created a sterile sea bottom. When this mass of plankton dies, it sinks to
the bottom and the decomposition consumes all of the oxygen on the seafloor.

Sea bottoms with lack of oxygen (purple) and the toxic gas hydrogen sulphide (red) is spread over
bigger and bigger areas in the Baltic Sea.

Algae’ blooming is increasing. Over-fertilisation has also caused substantial algae blooming along
the coast and further out in the sea. In many cases this alga has been poisonous. Environmental
toxins have struck hard against seals and birds of prey, for example the white-tailed sea eagle. As
early as the 1960s, the sea eagle was the first species to present convincing evidence that something
was very wrong with the environment around the Baltic Sea, and it is also the bird species that has
most clearly shown the influence of DDT on the environment.

7. FISHERING IN NORWAY:
 Fishering is a very important business in Norway. A long coastline, shallow sea areas and many
fjords are reasons for this. There are also an enormous population of different species living in our
costal waters because of the rich and cold water surrounding Norway.

Norway has a long historical tradition of fishering. Norway has always been a fishing nation and
all Norwegian families have a fishing rod in their basement.

Stavanger was actually founded on fishing and the

important fish was herring. From the late 1800 (18
hundreds) to 1960 the herring industry flourished. Sadly, at
that time there were no rules protecting the population of
herring against too much fishing, and the herring adventure
in Stavanger ended because of lack of knowledge of how
much the herring population could handle. (Luckily we
have the oil today)

Nowadays fishing is the third most important export commodity after oil/gas and metal and makes
5’2 percent of the total Norwegian export value. And fishing made 0’5 percent of the Gross national
product last year. This is not a great number, but when I also tell you that Norwegian fishing boats
delivered 2’5 million tons of fish the same year. It tells us how important the oil is for the
Norwegian economy.

Norway divides the fishing in the sea into two categories:

- Fishing in the costal waters
- Fishing in the open sea.

During a year the fish moves from different parts of the sea. Some species that live in the open sea
travel near the coast to breed before they again return to the open sea. This circulation makes the
fishermen constantly follow the fish.

As it can be seen in this map nowadays fishing is very important in all the northern parts of
Norway.

Main species captured in the Norway

The most important species in Norwegian fishing industry are: Cod, herring, mackerel and salmon.

In Norway the fishes are used for:

- Human food.
- Different food oils.
- Fish food.
- And of course as an export article.

Nowadays fishermen have much bigger boats than before. This leads to that the number of boats
is smaller. The boats also have more modern equipment. All of this shall make the fishing more
efficient. Making the fishing more efficient is important because the fishing In Norway is no longer
subsidy the way it was before. The number of people living directly from fishing is also much
smaller now. Today 13 240 people have fishing as their main job, while this number was 68 000 in
1950.

This diagram shows us that the number of fishing boats has decreased, and at the same time, this
diagram shows us that the amount of fish caught has increased the last centuries.
 Now there are strict rules to protect the population of the different species. Every fishing boat has
a quota of fish they are allowed to catch. Often we read in the newspaper that the coastguard has
caught fishing boats in the Barents Sea that don’t follow these rules. This might be Norwegian boats
ass well as boats from other countries.

In the future I believe it is very important that we are aware the problems too much fishing might
cause. And continue having strict rules to protect the different species.

AQUACULTURE AS AN ALTERNATIVE WAY OF OVERCAPTURE

In order to solve the problems of fishing over capture, there is a need to find alternative solutions
such as the aquaculture, which means that fishes are bred in fish-farms.

Example of a fish farm

 Aquaculture in Spain

The Mediterranean coast has different points of aquaculture where different species, not only
fishes, but crustaceans and molluscs, are bred.

As an annual production rate, on average, aquaculture in the Mediterranean generates

approximately 300.000 tons of mussels. Fishes occupy the next position in marine aquaculture. The
Gilthead Sea Bream and European Sea Bass generate higher production rates at 14 and 15 thousand
tons, respectively. But aquaculture generates problems too. When a cage is installed to breed fishes
provokes the next negative effects:
- A massive discharge of nutrients in dissolution, such as phosphorus and nitrogen.
- Emission of organic material.
- Use of antibiotic which can affect to other species in the sea.
Aquaculture in Belgium:

In Belgium aquaculture means mainly production of fresh-water fish i.e. trout, carp and eel.
Aquaculture is rather small-scale in Belgium. Nevertheless we notice some opportunities but also
threats.
The most important opportunity lies within the fact that, in Belgium, the demand for fish is
continuously increasing. In order to cope with this increasing demand aquaculture is a welcome
supplement for our limited fishing.

The threats are found on two levels: on the one side we find the increasing international
competition with cheap import and on the other hand there is an ecological threat. The latest results
from the quality of the water in lakes and rivers, which is deteriorating because of pollution.