Reuters: Global warming threatens Baltic Sea marine life

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent
Wed May 31, 5:54 AM ET

OSLO (Reuters) - Global warming is adding new threats to marine life in the almost land-locked Baltic Sea, where fish are already struggling in polluted, brackish waters, a leading expert said on Wednesday.

"The Baltic Sea is already in bad shape ... life there is in a very delicate balance," Hans von Storch, a professor at the Institute of Coastal Research in Germany who chairs a group of 80 scientists from 12 nations studying the Baltic, told Reuters.

Higher temperatures are likely to mean more rain and snow in the Baltic region, from Copenhagen to St. Petersburg and where 85 million people live. That might make the sea ever less salty and add to a polluting runoff of fertilisers from farmland.

"A tendency toward lower salinity could be expected, which is thought to have a major influence on the Baltic Sea fauna," scientists in the Baltex Assessment of Climate Change of the Baltic Sea Region said.

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