Management and Protection of the Black Sea Environment: an International Approach

Abstract

The European continent has three large semi-enclosed seas of similar area, which are heavily impacted by human activities: the North Sea (area 5.75 × 10⁵ km²), the Baltic Sea (3.73×l0⁵ km²) and the Black Sea (4.2×10⁵ km²). The Black Sea is unique among these as it is deep (maximum 2212m) and virtually isolated, connected with the Mediterranean by a narrow and shallow channel (the Bosphorus). This situation has resulted in its being permanently anoxic below a depth of 150–200m. Indeed, 90% of its 5.37×l0⁵ km³ is anoxic, the largest anoxic water mass on our planet. Not all of the Black Sea is deep, since about 25% of the Black Sea’s area is occupied by its north-western continental shelf less than 200m deep.